The hiragana chart
Read the chart across: the row letter on the left plus the vowel at the top gives the sound. Press any character to hear it. The four in red do not follow the pattern exactly: shi, chi, tsu and fu. The y-row and w-row have gaps because those sounds dropped out of Japanese long ago.
を is read “o”. It sounds the same as お, but it is used for one thing only: the particle that marks the object of a verb, as in パンを食べる “eat bread”.
ん stands alone. It is the only character that is just a consonant. It is never at the start of a word, and it counts as a full beat: ほん hon (book) has two.
Dakuten and handakuten: two small marks, 25 new sounds
A voiced consonant is one you say with your vocal cords buzzing, like “g” or “z”; an unvoiced one, like “k” or “s”, has no buzz. The dakuten mark ゛ turns an unvoiced row into its voiced partner.
| Characters | Change | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ga gi gu ge go | k + ゛ → g | g as in “go”, never as in “gem” |
| za ji zu ze zo | s + ゛ → z | じ is ji, like “jeep” |
| da ji zu de do | t + ゛ → d | ぢ and づ sound like じ and ず and are rare |
| ba bi bu be bo | h + ゛ → b | |
| pa pi pu pe po | h + ゜ → p | the circle is called maru, “circle” |
Combined sounds: small ゃ, ゅ, ょ
Any i-column character plus a small や, ゆ or よ makes one sound in one beat. The small character is written at about half size and lower down: きゃ is kya, while full-size きや would be two beats, ki-ya.
Telling similar characters apart
A few characters share strokes. Each pair below has one feature that separates them; look for it first.
Your first words in hiragana
Everyday words that are normally written in hiragana, or that children learn in hiragana before the kanji. Read each one before you press it.
Hiragana in sentences
These sentences are written entirely in hiragana, as a Japanese children’s book would write them. Without spaces, the particles は, を and に help you see where one word ends.
Hiragana that look alike
A few pairs are easy to confuse at first. Look for the one stroke that differs.
First words in hiragana only
Many common words are written in hiragana alone. Read each one before pressing play.
Your first hiragana sentences
Beginner texts put spaces between words. Real Japanese does not; kanji and particles show where words break.
Check yourself
Read each word aloud, then open the answer.
- Read: ねこ
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nekocat - Read: さくら
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sakuracherry blossom - Read: きって
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kittestamp: small っ doubles the k. - Read: ちょっと
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chottoa little: ちょ + っ + と. - Read: ありがとう
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arigatōthank you: とう is a long ō.
A two-week plan
Ten to fifteen minutes a day is enough. Write each new character by hand five times while saying it aloud, then read the words from earlier days.