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Hi Rag An A
Hi Rag An A
com
By Clay Boutwell
Learn Hiragana—Your First Step into the Wonderful World of Japanese—Quickly and Painlessly!
Feel free to distribute this eBook to your friends or you may place it on your website provided the PDF is
unchanged. We would greatly appreciate a link back to either www.theJapanesePage.com or
www.1nichi1kai.com (or both!) but it isn’t required.
Introduction:
Japanese has three writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. It is important to master all three
as they are all used and often used together. Kanji are the imported Chinese characters which have
meaning and pronunciation (usually multiple pronunciations). There are about 2000 of these deemed
necessary by the Japanese government. Before you despair, know Hiragana and Katakana each only
have 46 characters. Also unlike kanji, but similar to our alphabet, hiragana and katakana do not have
meaning, but only a single pronunciation each.
Katakana is usually used for foreign words and names or for special emphasis.
Hiragana is used in conjunction with kanji. You can think of it as the generic writing system that is fallen
back on when kanji or katakana isn‘t used. Therefore Hiragana, in my opinion, is most important and
should be the first step in learning Japanese.
This_eBook:
Each page covers two hiragana. Use the extra space to practice writing each character. Be careful to
follow the stroke order as given. It is easy to make up your own stroke order, but I can‘t stress enough
how important it is to get it right from the start.
This eBook covers just about everything you need to know to learn hiragana, but if you need further help,
please check out our Hiragana & Katakana section in our online store where you will find books and our
downloadable Hiragana Learning Pack which includes sound files and a 48 page PDF with mnemonics,
illustrations and much more: http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php?cat=67
THE INTRODUCTION
This chart shows all the hiragana you will learn in the coming weeks. If
you are just starting, take a quick look now, but don‘t let it overwhelm
you! You will begin to see a clear structure as you learn the characters.
THE STRUCTURE
Note how the columns represent the vowels a, i, u, e, o and the rows
represent the consonants. For example, the first row would just be the
vowels—a, i, u, e, o. The second row would be the ―k‘s‖: ka, ki, ku, ke, ko.
th
The 7 ―m‖ row would be ma, mi, mu, me, mo.
The red characters are slightly irregular, but we will get to that in a future
chapter.
AND so begins your journey! Be sure to write each character many times
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - a
SOUND - [as in fAther]
MEMORY: it looks like a cross with a sideways #9. "Ah... number 9"
With only 2 Hiragana under your belt, you can begin to read real Japanese words!
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - i
SOUND - [as in fEEt]
Find websites or books with Japanese and search for the Hiragana you know
As we build the number of characters learned we will increase the vocabulary as well
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - u
SOUND - [as in fOOd]
MEMORY: It looks like a nose and an opened mouth looking for fOOd
Later we will see that sometimes this character is used to make characters longer in pronunciation - keep that in mind, but don't
worry, be happy
Do your best to correctly pronounce each vowel - it will be very important later on
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - e
SOUND - [as in hAte]
You are doing great! Are you writing these characters down?
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - o
SOUND - [as in OH nO!]
Congratulations! You have made great headway! You have learned all 5 vowel sounds in Japanese.
English has 5 letters that are vowels (a, e, i, o, u) but some 15 vowel sounds squeezed out of those
letters. Japanese only has 5 vowel sounds period.
You may want to make flashcards of the hiragana as you learn them. Once you’ve reviewed enough to
where you can name the character at sight, proceed to Chapter 2—ka ki ku ke ko
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - ka
SOUND - [as in CAr]
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - ki
SOUND - [as in KEY]
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - ku
SOUND - [as in COol] 13 k wav
Kanji, the 3rd writing system in Japanese, has about 2000 characters to learn - aren't you glad you are
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - ke
SOUND - [as in CAve] 9 k wav
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - ko
SOUND - [as in COld] 11 k wav
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - sa
SOUND - [as in SOlitude]
If you understand Hiragana's pattern, I believe you have mastered the hardest part
NOTE: This is pronounced as the English 'SHE' not 'SEA' as you would expect!
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - shi
SOUND - [as in SHE]
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - su
SOUND - [as in SUE]
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]
ROMAJI - se
SOUND - [as in SAY]
HOW TO WRITE IT
[Start from the top]
ROMAJI - so
SOUND - [as in SO]
You are doing great! Remember to practice the correct stroke order when writing the characters. As a
general rule, always start your strokes from the top to the bottom; from the left to the right.
CHAPTER 4: The 'T' line has a few that aren't "regular" - so be careful
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ta
SOUND - [as in TOddler]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - chi
SOUND - [as in CHEAp]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - tsu
SOUND - [as in caT'S SOUp (not a natural sound in English)]
Hiragana!
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - te
SOUND - [as in TAble]
AGANA TO
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - to
SOUND - [as in TOE]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - na
SOUND - [as in kNOt]
Hiragana NI
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ni
SOUND - [as in kNEE]
MEMORY: It looks like a person sitting on his kNEEs (as seen from above)
Hiragana NU
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - nu
SOUND - [as in NEw]
Hiragana NE
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ne
SOUND - [as in NAY]
MEMORY: If you look carefully you will see a '1', '+' and a '2' but, NAY, no '3'
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - no
SOUND - [as in NO]
The の when used as a grammatical particle basically is used like an apostrophe S to show possession:
わたし の ねこ
watashi no neko
My cat.
(I ‘s cat)
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ha
SOUND - [as in HA!]
ROMAJI - hi
SOUND - [as in HE]
ROMAJI - fu
SOUND - [as in FOOd]
Hiragana
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - he
SOUND - [as in HEY!]
Like ha when this is used as a particle it is pronounced as just e (drop the h) - but more on that later...
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ho
SOUND - [as in HOle]
Keep at it
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ma
SOUND - [as in MA MA]
MA MI MU ME MO
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - mi
SOUND - [as in ME]
MA MI MU ME MO
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - mu
SOUND - [as in MOvie]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - me
SOUND - [as in MAY]
MEMORY: It looks like a half closed eye (me means eye in Japanese)
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - mo
SOUND - [as in MOwer]
MA MI MU ME MO
A MI MU ME MO
By now you should know enough hiragana to go hiragana hunting on the internet. Try going to a few
Japanese websites and pick out hiragana you have studied! You may not be able to figure out the
meaning, but it will be good practice for sight reading.
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ya
SOUND - [as in YAk]
YA YU YO
Hiragana
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - yu
SOUND - [as in YOU]
MEMORY: If you look really close, you may see a Y, O, and U there
YA YU YO
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - yo
SOUND - [as in YO-YO] 9 k wav
YA YU YO
All three of these hiragana are used when making combination characters (to be covered briefly in
chapter eleven)
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ra
SOUND - Listen to the sound
RA RI RU RE RO - are the most difficult to pronounce – Go to www.TheJapanesePage.com for sound files and a lesson on the R‘s
(under the Hiragana section)
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ri
SOUND - [listen to the file]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ru
SOUND - [listen to the file]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - re
SOUND - [listen to file]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - ro
SOUND - [listen to file]
The R sounds present a challenge to the English speakers since it is different from most English R
sounds. Sometimes it sounds like an ‘R’ and sometimes a ‘D.’
Listen to the sound file and repeat until you are confident. Then find a native speaker and get her to
correct your mistakes!
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - wa
SOUND - [as in WAsh]
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - n
SOUND - [as in N]
This one is only used as a particle meaning Direct Object and is pronounced 'OH'
HOW TO WRITE IT
ROMAJI - wo or o
SOUND - [as in OH]
MEMORY:looks like a guy jumping over someone's attack (the arc is a blade
sweeping by). So "OH! The ninja's katana nearly hit him!"
There are more sounds in Japanese than just the 46 hiragana. In order to make the other sounds,
all you have to do is take the hiragana you know and 1) add a ‗ten ten‘, 2) add a ‗maru‘ or 3) use a
small ya, yu or yo. We will look at each one briefly:
the 'K' row becomes 'G' (still the same good ole
ka only with a ten-ten ; notice it is a harder
sound)
the 'S' row becomes 'Z' (again harder sound)
the 'T' row becomes 'D'
the 'H' row becomes 'B' or 'P' ('B' is with a ten-ten (ex. ba) and 'P' is with
a circle (ex. pa))
NOTE: Actually if you allow it to sink in, the sound changes seem quite logical. You
ki + ya = kya
One more thing... You have learned tsu - But sometimes it appears smaller than
other letters. This causes a slight pause or break between syllables.
Example: chotto (which means 'a little') pronounced "cho - to" with a slight
break between syllables. In romaji it is usually written by repeating the next consonant
as with 'choTTo.'
Homework : Try to find some other examples on the internet of the small tsu
The name sounds impossible to learn, but it is simply reading the Hiragana
that makes the character. The eyebrow is 'he.' The eye is 'no.' The nose is
'mo.' the mouth is 'he.' And the face is made by 'ji.'(ji = shi + ") Do you see
it?
BOOKS: There are many books designed to help you learn Hiragana and Katakana.
This free PDF covers just about everything you will need to master Hiragana, but if you
are type of learner who needs a book or flashcards, we have a number of excellent
products at our store:
http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php?cat=67
If you don’t have a textbook yet, I would highly recommend getting one
and sticking with it. Having a textbook helps keep your studying regular
and in a linear progression.
Lastly, you may want to take a look at our Hiragana (& Katakana)
Shitajiki. Japanese students use Shitajiki to use as a hard surface to write
on. Put your paper on top of this and write in style!
http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php?productid=16189
Thank you very much for using this guide! If you haven’t done so already, please join
our Japanese language learning community at www.thejapanesepage.com. Also
please stop by my blog at www.1nichi1kai.com (once a day) for mini lessons, videos
and other free downloads. Lastly, don’t forget our store www.thejapanshop.com for all
your Japanese book needs.
Your purchases give us the time and opportunity to keep working on producing these
free lessons, eBooks, videos etc. It is definitely a joy to produce these resources, but
without your support through store purchases, feedback and donations—freebies like
this eBook wouldn’t be possible.
Thank you!
Clay & Yumi
11-18-2007