Hiragana

If you are unfamiliar with romaji, please first check out Introduction: Romaji.

The Basics

Hiragana is fairly simple to understand after you grasp the basics. The first five Hiragana are:

あa いi うu えe おo

Pretty much all other Hiragana build upon this. For example the next five are:

かka きki くku けke こko

Do you see the pattern? The vowels stay the same and there are different characters for different consonants. There are a few exceptions of course, but we’ll talk about them later.

Hiragana Chart

Below I have included Hiragana along with their romaji except a couple that are no longer used. At this point I’m not telling you to memorize or study them, just look at them and find some patterns.

あa いi うu えe おo
かka きki くku けke こko
さsa しshi すsu せse そso
たta ちchi つtsu てte とto
なna にni ぬnu ねne のno
はha ひhi ふfu へhe ほho
まma みmi むmu めme もmo
やya ゆyu よyo
らra りri るru れre ろro
わwa をwo
んn/m

Special Rows

If you looked at the above chart and didn’t give up at the thought of learning them, good job!

As you probably noticed, each column represents one of the five vowels, and each row represents a different consonant. Most rows put the consonant next to each vowel, but a couple are different. Let’s take a look at those that are different.

  • The first row that is different is the S row (the third from the top). Its second character is “shi” instead of the expected “si”.
  • The next one is the T row (fourth from the top). Its second character is “chi” instead of “ti” and the third character is “tsu” instead of “tu”.
  • Next is the H row (sixth from the top). Its third character is “fu” instead of “hu”.
  • The Y row (eight row) only has three characters for “ya”, “yu”, and “yo”. These become very important later on.
  • The W row (second from last) only has two characters for “wa” and “wo”. Wo is important in grammer.
  • The N row (last one) only has one character with no vowels. This one can be pronounced as “n” or “m” depending on the context.

Tentens

In Japanese, tentens mean dots. When they are added to certain rows in hiragana and katakana, they change the pronounciation of those characters. Here are the additional rows with tentens.

がga ぎgi ぐgu げge ごgo
ざza じji/zi ずzu ぜze ぞzo
だda ぢdi/ji づdzu でde どdo
ばba びbi ぶbu べbe ぼbo

The “k” becomes a “g”, the “s” becomes “z”, the “t” becomes “d”, and the “h” becomes “b”. Some from the D row are quite rarely used, especially the “di” and “dzu”.

Maru

Maru means circle in Japanese. Only the H row has marus added. It changes the sound from “h” to “p”. Here is the row.

ぱpa ぴpi ぷpu ぺpe ぽpo

Ya, Yu, Yo

Remember I mentioned that the Y row is important? Well here is why. For all rows that have five characters, except D, you can pull out the second character, the one that ends in “i”. Then you add a small ya, yu or yo to get a different sound. Here are the different possible combinations.

きゃkya きゅkyu きょkyo
しゃsha しゅshu しょsho
ちゃcha ちゅchu ちょcho
にゃnya にゅnyu にょnyo
ひゃhya ひゅhyu ひょhyo
みゃmya みゅmyu みょmyo
りゃrya りゅryu りょryo
ぎゃgya ぎゅgyu ぎょgyo
じゃjya じゅjyu じょjyo
びゃbya びゅbyu びょbyo
ぴゃpya ぴゅpyu ぴょpyo

Notice that since the second character is the one getting pulled out, the S row has the “sh” sound, the T row has a “ch” sound, and the Z row has a “j” sound. Also, all of the rows with tentens and marus are listed here except the D row.

Chiisai Tsu

The chiisai tsu, or small tsu, has another hidden purpose. When you add it before a consonant, so any character except one from the first row, it doubles the consonant. To understand what I mean take a look at this example.

言いって

itte

Itte means, to say. If you take out the small tsu, you would read it as ite. The small tsu before the te, doubles the “t” and makes it itte.

Whenever you encounter a double consonant, it is a glottal stop. To pronounce it, split the word down the middle of the consonant. In this case that would be:

it - te

Now try pronouncing it while pausing a bit in the middle. Hopefully that makes sense; if not, don’t worry you’ll get it with time.

Stroke Order

Now that we have covered the complete Hiragana chart, let’s talk about stroke order. If you’ve never written Japanese before, you are probably wondering how to write all of those squiggly characters. Each character consists of strokes, and there is an order in which you should draw them. Before you jump in, review each character’s stroke order. In general, the rules are:

  1. Start in the top left corner.
  2. Left to right.
  3. Top to bottom.
  4. Finish off in bottom right corner.

If you take a look at the first one, “a” this is what it looks like.

あ

  • To write it, first draw the cross stroke on top. (The one that looks like a not-so-flat horizontal line.)
  • Next, draw the down stroke that crosses the first one. (The almost vertical line on the left).
  • To finish off, start in the middle, draw the loop, and finish off on the bottom right.

I won’t be including the stroke order for each character here, but if you wish to take a look at it, here is a website you can take a look at.

Conclusion

So this is the full Hiragana chart with an introduction to stroke order. If you want to study and memorize Hiragana, I would recommend making flashcards. Type out the hiragana on a paper, cut it into equal pieces, write the romaji on the back, and practice. If you want to practice stroke order, you can also include it on the back and practice writing it. To not be overwhelmed, do one row at a time. Once you feel comfortable with it, practice the next row. Then combine the two together and practice. Continue the process until you feel comfortable with all of them.

Back: Introduction

Next: Katakana