Hiragana is the first Japanese writing system to learn. Each character stands for a whole syllable, and there are 46 basic ones.
The chart is a grid
Every row is a consonant, and every column is one of the five vowels, always in the order a, i, u, e, o:
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | あ | い | う | え | お |
| k | か | き | く | け | こ |
| s | さ | し | す | せ | そ |
| t | た | ち | つ | て | と |
Learn it a row at a time. The deck follows the chart's order: a, k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, then ん (n) on its own.
Readings that break the pattern
- し is shi, ち is chi, つ is tsu and ふ is fu, not si, ti, tu or hu.
- は is wa and へ is e when they work as particles (は marks the topic, へ means “to”).
- を is said o and is only used as a particle.
Look-alikes
- さ (sa) and ち (chi) are mirror images.
- ぬ (nu) has a loop that め (me) doesn't.
- ね (ne), れ (re) and わ (wa) share a left side; look at how each ends.
- る (ru) has a loop; ろ (ro) doesn't.
A first word
さくら (sakura) is cherry blossom: さ (sa) + く (ku) + ら (ra). Try reading すし and ねこ (sushi, cat).