Letter K in Japanese or Korean

[simonugor]

Hello, I am not really learning these languages, I only wanted to know if there is any way to express only letter "K" in Japanese or Korean. Thank you and sorry if this doesn't belong here.

[devilyoudont]

Native Japanese script cannot write a consonant other than N without a vowel.

To talk about K sounds generally, you could say か行 (kagyou). This refers to the 5 mora in Japanese that start with a K sound.

To transliterate foreign words, ク (ku) is often used to represent a K that isn't followed by a vowel.

[eido]

Much like Japanese, consonants cannot exist alone in Korean. Plus, there are many 'k' sounds. There are three. One, which is written as a K is actually what I'd call a mix of a K and G. It's called 'giyeok' and is written like: ㄱ. For example, let's write the name Kim Namjoon (RM of BTS' real name). We can see that it starts with K. But it's written with 'giyeok', like so: 김 남준. That's the power of transliteration. Next we have the tension sound 'ㄲ', or 'ssang giyeok'. We also have 'ㅋ', or 'kieuk'. For example, ice cream. It's written like: 아이스크림. This is more clearly a K sound, but it has aspiration, unlike 'ㄱ'. I suppose that's close to English. But you have to be mindful of how to shift your English word to Korean. As you can see, each sound is erm, elongated and it doesn't sound quite like the English.

[MacGyver]

For Korean, the sounds don't map exactly, but...

'ㅋ' is the closest to a hard k sound.

'ㄱ' is closer to g than it is k. Likewise 'ㄲ'.

[simonugor]

Thank you. Anyway since it is not possible to express only letter K.. is there any way to write the whole name "Katarína", in english its "Kate" or "Katherine". Thanks again.

[vonPeterhof]

is there any way to write the whole name "Katarína"

If it's from Slovak it will be カタリーナ in Japanese and 카타리나 in Korean.

[simonugor]

Yes it is from Slovak. Thank you very much, you helped me a lot!