I am learning Japanese and I know that Japanese is traditionally written vertically but I was wondering if modern Japanese is written horizontal or vertically.
It’s both basically. Completely interchangeable, it’s more based on what fits best with the format and space of whatever it is you’re writing.
It’s both. It depends on the type of media, Japanese books are usually vertical and websites are usually horizontal.
As others have already stated it’s either or, but it might be worth mentioning that when I was studying the language formally at university, my Japanese native teachers had us all writing vertically on genkō yōshi for our diaries and homework.
Both. But something else to remember is that while vertically it’s read right to left, top to bottom, horizontally it’s usually read top to bottom, left to right. That was really confusing to me when I first came across it, I thought it would always be right to left
Traditionally, it was always written vertically, right to left, because it was written with an ink and brush. The stroke order of characters makes far more sense when you realize they are set up to flow vertically from one character to the next.
However, as Japanese began to interact with other cultures with horizontal writing systems, brushes gradually fell out of use, and it became more important to support other horizontally-based systems like western mathematics.
So these days, horizontal writing is just as common, if not more so.
Up, left, right, down, doesn’t matter.
And sometimes backwards!
Both. But even English is written vertically when the mood strikes, so it’s not that odd.
Yes
Both. You have to carefully craft what you are going to say so that it works both vertically and horizontally at the same time. Doesn’t have to be the same sentence, but has to make sense. Hard to learn, but once you got it, it really helps you choose your words carefully.
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Yes.
It’s both basically. Completely interchangeable, it’s more based on what fits best with the format and space of whatever it is you’re writing.
It’s both. It depends on the type of media, Japanese books are usually vertical and websites are usually horizontal.
As others have already stated it’s either or, but it might be worth mentioning that when I was studying the language formally at university, my Japanese native teachers had us all writing vertically on genkō yōshi for our diaries and homework.
Both. But something else to remember is that while vertically it’s read right to left, top to bottom, horizontally it’s usually read top to bottom, left to right. That was really confusing to me when I first came across it, I thought it would always be right to left
Traditionally, it was always written vertically, right to left, because it was written with an ink and brush. The stroke order of characters makes far more sense when you realize they are set up to flow vertically from one character to the next.
However, as Japanese began to interact with other cultures with horizontal writing systems, brushes gradually fell out of use, and it became more important to support other horizontally-based systems like western mathematics.
So these days, horizontal writing is just as common, if not more so.
Up, left, right, down, doesn’t matter.
And sometimes backwards!
Both. But even English is written vertically when the mood strikes, so it’s not that odd.
Yes
Both. You have to carefully craft what you are going to say so that it works both vertically and horizontally at the same time. Doesn’t have to be the same sentence, but has to make sense. Hard to learn, but once you got it, it really helps you choose your words carefully.
Both