How to write Joe in katakana
Japanese writes foreign names in katakana, one of its two alphabets, by sound rather than by spelling. Joe becomes ジョー, made of these parts:
| Katakana | Sound | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ジョ | jo | two characters read as one sound |
| ー | – | long vowel mark: hold the sound before it a little longer |
When you write a full name, Japanese puts a middle dot between the first and last name, for example ジョー・スミス for Joe Smith.