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Today Japanese uses three different writing systems, kanji for showing the meanings of words, and hiragana and katakana for showing the sounds of words. While Japanese does not use spacing, native Japanese speakers can still tell apart words quickly because the three different types of writing look quite different from each other, and each writing system is usually used for a certain kind of word. Kanji is usually used to write native Japanese words, Chinese loanwords, and the roots of content words (nouns, adjective, adjectives, adverbs). Hiragana is usually used for common phrases, particles, and the inflections of content words. Katakana is usually used for loanwords from languages other than Chinese, onomatopoeia, and for extra emphasis.