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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.