How to write Houston in katakana
Japanese writes foreign names in katakana, one of its two alphabets, by sound rather than by spelling. Houston becomes ヒューストン, made of these parts:
| Katakana | Sound | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ヒュ | hyu | two characters read as one sound |
| ー | – | long vowel mark: hold the sound before it a little longer |
| ス | su | |
| ト | to | |
| ン | n | n on its own |
When you write a full name, Japanese puts a middle dot between the first and last name, for example ヒューストン・スミス for Houston Smith.