What is hiragana?

Hiragana is the first script every learner meets. Each character stands for one sound, usually a consonant followed by a vowel, so か is “ka” and さ is “sa”.

Japanese uses it for grammar, such as verb endings and particles like は and を, and for native words that have no common kanji.

Books for young children are written almost entirely in hiragana. Once you know it, you can read furigana, the small kana printed above kanji, and sound out any word written in kana.

The table has 46 basic characters. Two small marks and a few combinations turn them into every sound of the language.

Basic 46

The basic table is called 五十音ごじゅうおん (gojūon, “fifty sounds”). It is ordered by vowel across, a, i, u, e, o, and by consonant down: k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w. Read a row from left to right and you get か き く け こ (ka ki ku ke ko).

A few cells break the pattern. し is “shi”, ち is “chi”, つ is “tsu” and ふ is “fu”, because that is how Japanese pronounces them. The y-row only has や, ゆ and よ, and the w-row keeps わ and を. ん, the only character that is a consonant on its own, closes the table.

Two characters sound different when they work as particles: は is read “wa” and へ is read “e”. を is read “o”, and today it only appears as a particle.

Learn one row at a time and say each sound out loud. The chart shows the stroke order of every character.

Dakuten ゛ and handakuten ゜

Two small marks change the consonant. The dakuten ゛, two short strokes, voices it: k becomes g, s becomes z, t becomes d and h becomes b. So か becomes が (ga), さ becomes ざ (za), た becomes だ (da) and は becomes ば (ba).

The handakuten ゜, a small circle, only goes on the h-row and makes a p sound: は becomes ぱ (pa).

じ and ぢ both sound “ji”, and ず and づ both sound “zu”. じ and ず are the usual spellings; ぢ and づ appear in a handful of words such as はなぢ (hanaji, nosebleed) and つづく (tsuzuku, to continue).

Combinations きゃ・しゅ・ちょ

A character from the i-column followed by a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ makes one syllable, called 拗音ようおん (yōon). き plus ゃ is きゃ, read “kya” in a single beat, not “ki-ya”.

Write the small kana at about half size. The size matters: きゃく (kyaku, guest) and きやく (kiyaku, terms and conditions) are different words.

There are 33 combinations, from きゃ to ぴょ. Some follow the spelling of their row: し gives しゃ (sha), ち gives ちゃ (cha) and じ gives じゃ (ja).

Small っ and long vowels

A small っ doubles the consonant that follows it, like a short pause before the sound: きって (kitte, stamp) and きて (kite, come) are different words. In romaji the next consonant is written twice.

A long vowel is written by adding a vowel:

• long a adds あ: おかあさん (okāsan, mother);
• long i adds い: おにいさん (onīsan, older brother);
• long u adds う: くうき (kūki, air);
• long e usually adds い, as in せんせい (sensei, teacher), and sometimes え, as in おねえさん (onēsan, older sister);
• long o usually adds う, as in がっこう (gakkō, school), and sometimes お, as in おおきい (ōkii, big).

Length changes meaning, so hold the sound: おばさん (obasan, aunt) and おばあさん (obāsan, grandmother) are different people.