How to write Mary in katakana
Japanese writes foreign names in katakana, one of its two alphabets, by sound rather than by spelling. Mary becomes メアリー, made of these parts:
| Katakana | Sound | Note |
|---|---|---|
| メ | me | |
| ア | a | |
| リ | ri | |
| 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 メアリー・スミス for Mary Smith.