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Chapter 1

Hiragana explained

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ひらがな:

An introduction to hiragana


You can click on some ひらがなhiragana, and see the romaji reading!
Be prepared! After lesson 10, the romaji tooltips will be removed.
ひらがなhiragana is the most common writing system of Japanese, therefore we learn it first! They are characterised as simple, rounder characters.
You can think of ひらがなhiragana as the alphabet of Japanese! Each character represents a sound, and unlike English combining characters and placement rarely effects the way it’s pronounced!

Below is a ひらがなhiragana chart with all the characters you will need to know.
  • The primary characters are in bold.
  • ‘Go along the row’ then ‘down the column’ to get the pronunciation, exceptions are highlighted.
  • Click any hiragana to hear the sound and view the romaji.
Hiragana Chart
A I U E O a u o
あ い う え お Combos below stem from the いi column
K か き く け こ ky きゃ きゅ きょ
S さ し す せ そ sh しゃ しゅ しょ
T た ち つ て と ch ちゃ ちゅ ちょ
N な に ぬ ね の ny にゃ にゅ にょ
H は ひ ふ へ ほ hy ひゃ ひゅ ひょ
M ま み む め も my みゃ みゅ みょ
Y や ゆ よ
R ら り る れ ろ ry りゃ りゅ りょ
W わ を
ん
G が ぎ ぐ げ ご gy ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ
Z ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ jy じゃ じゅ じゅ
D だ ぢ づ で ど jy ぢゃ ぢゅ ぢょ
B ば び ぶ べ ぼ by びゃ びゅ びょ
P ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ py ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ