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Start Quiz! Practice hiragana and katakana online with Tofugu’s free app. Type romaji for the kana you know.
- Learn Hiragana
By learning hiragana, you will learn the basics of Japanese...
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- Learn Hiragana
- Hiragana Chart
- Hiragana Pronunciation
- 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（Hu/Fu） へ（He） ほ（Ho）
- ま（Ma） み（Mi） む（Mu） め（Me） も（Mo）
- や（Ya） ゆ（Yu） よ（Yo）
To begin, download this hiragana chart. If you have a printer, print it out. If not, you can follow along digitally too.
Before you begin learning to read the hiragana, you have to learn how to pronounce the hiragana. Since hiragana pronunciation is such a listening and speaking thing, we made a video to cover this topic. Follow along. When you can pronounce the five "vowel sounds" of hiragana, move on to the next section, where you'll learn to read them.
This is the first (and most important!) column in hiragana. It sets the pronunciation of every other column coming after it, because every other column is basically just the a-i-u-e-o column with consonants attached to them. The same basic sound repeats over and over and over, with a consonant plus these five vowel sounds, so make sure you have the...
The next set of hiragana is from the "k-column." This is just the "k" sound plus the vowel sounds you learned above, making it ka-ki-ku-ke-ko. There are no weird exceptions in this column either, so enjoy it while you can. か is just the "K" sound plus あ, making a "ka"sound. ♫ Cannn, can you do the can can, can you do the can can… ♪ To remember this...
Now that you have the "K-column" under your belt it's time for the "S-column." There is one weird exception in this column, and that's for "si" aka "shi." It's pronounced just like the word "she" in English, and doesn't quite follow the pattern you've seen up until now. You'll want to use "sa-shi-su-se-so" for this column. さ is just the "S" sound p...
Time for the fourth column, the "T-column." Now you have a lot to remember! Hopefully mnemonics and the reasons for using them are starting to make sense now. If not, that should happen soon. Like the さ column, you'll find an exception in the た column. In fact, you'll find two exceptions, them being ち (chi) and つ (tsu). So, for this column we'll ha...
This is your first "more than 5 things to learn" group. In fact, it's a whole ten things! But you'll be just fine. You're getting better at learning the hiragana with all this practice. Too bad there's not 150 hiragana for you to practice on. な is just the "N" sound plus あ, making a "na" sound. The naughty (na) nun is praying in front of the cross,...
Now let's look at the next five in this set. If you're feeling really shaky you can jump over to Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Quiz to practice, but you don't have to (yet)! は is just the "H" sound plus あ, making a "ha" sound. This kana looks like the uppercase letter "H" plus the lowercase letter "a." What does that spell? "Ha!" Why are you laughing? St...
Not quite ten in this set (before the exercises), but close enough. Let's start with the "M-column." ま is just the "M" sound plus あ, making a "ma" sound. Removing your head? Doubling your hands and arms? What sort of evil magic is this? What makes it weirder is that your mama is the one doing this magic. Imagine your malooking like this. Aghh! み is...
This column is a little strange. There are only three items in here, and "ye" and "yi" are seemingly missing. Actually, they used to exist but now they don't (instead people use い or え, because it sounds pretty similar). Because of that, you only have to learn three kana for this section! や is just the "Y" sound plus あ, making a "ya" sound. Do you ...
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- Pronouncing the Hiragana Download a hiragana chart. You'll need a chart to study hiragana and also understand how the hiragana characters are organized.
- Writing in Hiragana Script Try typing in Japanese to more quickly recognize hiragana characters. Go to your computer's keyboard settings and change the input to Japanese.
- Reading Japanese Combine hiragana to form Japanese words you know. You likely already know a few Japanese words, such as konnichiwa (hello) and sayōnara (goodbye).
- Hiragana Quiz. Hiragana Quiz is a simple, no-frills quiz that’s easy to use. That’s why I use it all the time. The quiz works by showing you a character.
- FluentU. FluentU is an immersive language-learning program that lets you practice and learn Japanese hiragana by watching authentic Japanese videos. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
- Dr Lingua “Drag and Drop” If you prefer your hiragana practice gamified, check out this interactive site. In this game, you drag the hiragana characters onto their equivalent rōmaji pronunciations.
- Tanoshii Japanese. Regardless of whether you are studying hiragana, katakana or kanji, Tanoshii Japanese has a fun game to help you practice. I use it all the time.
Hiragana is one of the two syllabaries used in the Japanese writing system. It is a script primarily used for native Japanese words, grammatical elements, and verb and adjective endings. Hiragana characters represent syllables, and each character corresponds to a specific sound.
Feb 6, 2024 · Japanese vocabulary. Hiragana: The ultimate guide for beginners. Master hiragana with this ultimate guide for beginners. Learn to read and write, get a solid foundation to build your Japanese skills on, and practice all the sounds of Japanese. Barney Meekin Updated February 6, 2024 10 min read.
Oct 27, 2023 · In this complete guide, you'll learn how to read, write, and pronounce all of the hiragana characters for free. Videos will show you the correct stroke order of the characters.
