Introduction

The Writing System

The Japanese writing system began over 2,000 years ago when Japanese decided to adopt Chinese characters fror their
spoken language. Since then, the language has evolved and developed away from Chinese influence. There are now 3 separate
components to the Japanese writing system. They are hiragana, katakana, and kanji. All three characters can be seen in a single
sentence.

ケーキを食べました。
ｋe―ki o tabemashita.

(I) ate cake.

Hiragana- Hiragana and katakana, like the alphabet, represent sounds. As you can see in the above example, hiragana has a
roundish shape, and is used for conjugation endings, function words (grammatical elements), and native Japanese
words with no corresponding kanji.

Katakana- Katakana, which has rather straight lines, is normally used for writing loan words, foreign names, and onomatopoeic
words (usually seen in manga). For example, the word “cake” is written in katakana as ケーキ（ke―ki）.

Kanji- Kanji or chinese characters, represent not just sounds but also meanings. Mostly, kanji are used for nouns and the
stems of verbs and adjectives, names of Japanese people and places.

Okurigana- Hiragana following kanji stems in Japanese written words to complete its meaning. They serve two purposes: to
inflect adjectives and verbs (ex: when changing tenses), and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning
and be read a certain way.

Furigana- A Japanese reading aid, a small hiragana above a kanji to indicate its pronunciation.

Kana- Term for both hiragana and katakana.

Hiragana Chart
あ、い、う、え、お
The first set of hiragana you that you have to learn are the vowels a, i, u, e and o. All hiragana are sounds paired with a
vowel, except for the sound ‘n’. That is to say, there is hiragana for ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, but no symbol for the standalone letter k.

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

あ a ah あい いえ うえ
い i ee
あおい いい おおい
う u oo
いいえ
え e eh
お o oh

Unlike English, the pronunciation of these vowerl sounds are always the same. They are pronounced as “ah”, “ee”, “oo”,
“eh” and “oh”. Even when vowels are joined together, the sound remains the same. For example, the word あい is pronounced as
“ah-ee”. When read quickly, it may sound different, like “aye”, but they can always be broken down to the basic vowel sounds.

Long Vowels- ああ、いい、うう、ええ、おお、おう

In Japanese, the only other way a vowel can be changed is by extending it. An あ added to an あ will lengthen it. It will
sound the same, but for a longer duration. Even when speaking Japanese quickly, one should be able to tell that the sound has
been lengthened. Each vowel sound is lengthened by adding one of the hiragana we just learned. Note that the お sound is usually
extended by う rather than お, so we will encounter words with おう more often that おお.
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
か、き、く、け、こ ・ が、ぎ、ぐ、げ、ご
DAKUTEN MARK

Some hiragana groups have an alternate sound which are discernible by a diacritical mark, or dakuten. The same base
symbol is used because your mouth remains in the same position regardless of the dakuten mark, however you should blur the
sound to turn the sharp “k” sound into a softer “g” sound when the two strokes are added to the top right of the hiragana
symbol. You can think of this as a five new letters instead if this is a confusing concept.

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

か ka kah あかい かお くうこう

き ki kee
えき いけ おおきい
く ku koo
き こえ
け ke keh
こ ko koh

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

が ga gah えいが えいご かぐ

ぎ gi gee かげ かいぎ かぎ
ぐ gu goo
げ ge geh
ご go goh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
さ、し、す、せ、そ ・ ざ、じ、ず、ぜ、ぞ
In this lesson, first we will look at the third group of hiragana. The sounds are pretty basic. One important detail though,
is that し is pronounced as “shi”. The consonant “sh” is different from the “s” sound for the rest of the group. In Japanese,
there is no combination of hiragana that will sound like the English word “see”. You should notice that this group can also be
modified with a dakuten mark. The sound is blurred like before and the sharp “s” sounds are replaced with the softer “z” sound.
Once again, し is an exception. With a dakuten mark, it is pronounced as “ji”.

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

さ sa sah いす かさ おいしい
し shi shee すし うそ せかい
す su soo
せ se seh
そ so soh

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

ざ za zah あじ かぜ かぞく
じ ji/zi jee しずか
ず zu zoo
ぜ ze zeh
ぞ zo zoh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
The Japanese ん
In the previous lesson we mentioned that there was a single exception to the consonant-vowel structure of Japanese. The
exception is ん, which is pronounced as an n sound which attaches to the end of the vowel sound before it. This ん can never
start a syllable or a word. However, the sound that ん makes is considered as one syllable. For instance, songs sometimes
pronounced ん separately from other syllables. This is also the case when people slow down their speech to purposefully
enunciate every sound clearly.

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

ん n n かざん げんき しんごう

じかん かんじ ～さん
The pronounciation of ん has a tendency to change depending on what sounds surround it. For example,
・when ん is followed by “g” or “k”, it is often pronounced as “ng” like “manga”.
・ん followed by “m”, ”p”, or “b” is often pronounced as “m”, such as “sanpo”, “sanbyaku”.
・ん followed by “n”, “t”, “d”, “s” or “z” is pronounced as “n”, like “onna”, “sannin”, “sentaku”.
Note that this is not a “rule”. “n”, “ng”, “m” etc does not actually matter for native Japanese speakers, so you can pronounce ん
just as you find easy.
What is more important is to be careful not to link to the following vowel when ん is followed by one. For example, あんい
(easy, simple) is pronounced as an-i, not to be mistaken with あに “ani” (older brother).
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
た、ち、つ、て、と ・ だ、ぢ、づ、で、ど
This group of hiragana starts with the “t” sound. However, there are two exceptions. ち is pronounced as “chi”, and つ is
pronounced as “tsu”. With a dakuten mark, this group changes the “t” sound into a “d” sound. Again, the exceptions are ぢ、which

is pronounced almost the same as じ, and づ、which is pronounced like ず. There is no “tee”, “dee” , “too”, and “doo” sound in the

Japanese hiragana.
Note that the “ji” and “zu” sounds were covered in the past lesson already, and there is an overlap in the sound. The group
“t” version of these two sounds rarely appear and you can safely assume that every time you hear “ji” or “zu”, you can use じ and
ず。

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

た ta tah たこ てんき ちいさい

ち chi chee おとこ ちかてつ て
つ tsu tsoo おと
て te teh
と to toh

Hiragana Romaji Sound Vocabulary:

だ da dah かいだん でんき でんち

ぢ dzi dzee どくしん
づ dzu dzoo
で de deh
ど do doh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
Small つ (Double Consonants)
The small つ (called sokuon) is yet another departure from the consonant-vowel structure of Japanese. It is called the
small つ because we recognize the symbol as “tsu” which we have learned earlier. When it is placed in the subscript position, it
is known as the sokuon or ちいさい “つ” in less formal language. When using romaji, this is noted by doubling the consonant
following the sokuon.

Full-size Sokuon
Example: きっさてん ＝ kissaten
つ っ

This sounds quite different than what the romaji implies. The sokuon signals a glottal stop. In layman’s terms, that means a
very abrupt stop where the sokuon appears. In our example word きっさてん、the word is pronounced as “ki” and “saten” with a

short but distinct stop in between the two parts. One should not ignore the distinct stop that it makes when pronouncing a word
for it may change the meaning for certain words.

Vocabulary:

おっと きっさてん ざっし

きって がっこう けっこん

な、に、ぬ、ね、の
This group ofhiragana does not use any diacritical marks, so the pronounciation of these hiragana should be straightforward.
Here you combine the five basic vowel sounds you’ve learned in the first lesson with the “n” sound. The problem with this group
is the writing. Both ぬ and ね look very similar to hiraganas that you will encounter in the future lessons. For nu and ne, please
take note and remember that there is a loop at the end.

Vocabulary:
Hiragana Romaji Sound
な na nah なす いぬ ねこ
に ni nee おんな くに のど
ぬ nu noo
ね ne neh
の no noh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
は、ひ、ふ、へ、ほ
This group of hiragana may be the most difficult group of hiragana. First, it uses two different diacritical marks (will be
discussed on lesson 6), and it also has ふ which is often a challenge to pronounce properly. Without diacritical marks, the group
combines the “h” sound with the five basic vowels to produce. There are three exceptions. The first exception is ふ which is
always pronounced as “fu”. The romaji “fu” is very misleading which creates illusion that the ふ sound is difficult to pronounce.
It is not the harsh English “f” sound which is made with upper-teeth and lips. When you pronounce ふ, you are going to bring
your lips close together and make a sound by causing friction as air passes through the chink between your lips. It somewhat
sounds like the “f” sound in English but softer and closer to “h”. The second and third exceptions are は and へ。 は and へ are
pronounced as “hah” and “heh” when when they are a part of a word. However, they are also used as a grammatical tools called
particles, which will be discussed on the grammar lessons. は is used as topic marker and へ marks a noun that is the destination
of a movement. When used like that, they are pronounced as “wah” and “eh”.

Vocabulary:
Hiragana Romaji Sound は ひ さいふ
は ha hah
ほし こうはい
ひ hi hee
ふ fu hoo
へ he heh
ほ ho hoh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
ば、び、ぶ、べ、ぼ ・ ぱ、ぴ、ぷ、ぺ、ぽ
In this lesson, we will discuss the last set of hiragana that uses diacritical marks, the は、ひ、ふ、へ、ほ group. First, with the
dakuten mark, the “h” sound changes to a “b” sound. The last set uses the handakuten mark, or maru(circle) mark, which
appears as a small circle on the top right of the hiragana symbol. With this, the “h” consonant changes to “p”. This is the only
group that uses handakuten mark.

Vocabulary:
Hiragana Romaji Sound
へび きっぷ かべ
ば ba bah
び bi bee
えんぴつ せんぱい ぶた
ぶ bu boo
べ be beh
ぼ bo boh
ぱ pa pah
ぴ pi pee
ぷ pu poo
ぺ pe peh
ぽ po poh
か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
ま、み、む、め、も
The first group in of hiragana in this line are basic and simple. They pair the “m” sound with the five vowel sounds that
we’ve been using so far. They do not use any diacritical marks to form other sounds and the only challenge is the written form.
Pay attention on how the symbols are looped when trying to write them.

Vocabulary:
Hiragana Romaji Sound
いま みみ むね
ま ma mah
み mi mee め きもの
む mu moo
め me meh
も mo moh

や、ゆ、よ
The next group pair the “y” sound with the vowels, a, u, and o. Since the Japanese never used the sounds “yi” and “ye”, we
have two fewer hiragana to remember.
Vocabulary:
Hiragana Romaji Sound
へや やま ゆき
や ya yah
ゆ yu yoo よやく
よ yo yoh
か おぼ
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ら、り、る、れ、ろ
This group of hiragana pair the five basic vowel sounds with the “r” sound with no diacritical marks. However, in
pronounciation, this is not the English “r” sound. It is somewhat between “r” and “l” when pronouncing. Notice that Japanese
does not have an “l” sound. When borrowing words, the sound “r” and “l” are the same for them (ball = bo―ru; roll= roーru ). If

you are unsure about the sound, use the “la”, “li”, “lu”, “le”, “ro” instead of the English “r’ and try to relax your tongue as you
speak. It will will be much closer to the Japanese pronouncitation than the harsh English “r” sound.

Hiragana Romaji Sound

ら ra rah
り ri ree
る ru roo
れ re reh
ろ ro roh
Vocabulary:

そら くすり さる

りんご こころ くるま

か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
わ、を
For the last group of hiragana, there are only two to remember. The”w” sound is only paired with the “a” and “o” sounds in
modern Japanese. In fact, even を is rarely seen inside a word and is mostly used as a grammatical particle, and when used as a
particle, it is pronounced as “o” (same case with は and へ).

Hiragana Romaji Sound

わ wa wah
を wo wo/o

Vocabulary:

ゆびわ でんわ かわ

かわいい

か おぼ
書いて覚えよう！
Small ゃ、ゅ、ょ - Youon
All three of the group や、ゆ、よ hiragana can be used as a youon (twisted sound). Like the small っ(sokuon)、the youon are
indistinguishable from the the “y” group hiragana except for the fact that it is in the subscript position (lower in position and smaller). The
youon are combined only with the “i” characters from all the other groups of hiragana, including those with diacritical marks. When you
pronounce youon, your mouth should be about to pronounce the “ee” sound of the kana on the left, e.g. に, but shortened that is almost
disappears. Then you immediately pronounce 'ya', 'yu' or 'yo' to form 'nya', 'nyu' and 'nyo'. The point is that the 'n' must be combined with
'y' to form 'ny'. youon are diphthongs that have only one syllable. If you pronounce youon with two syllables, then you are wrong. Again, the
exceptions are し、じ、ち、ぢ, which are romanized with “h”. With these hiraganas, the shortened “ee” sound and the ya, yu, yo sound are gone,
turning into “sha”,”shu”,”cha”,”ja” etc.

“i” +ゃ +ゅ +ょ “i” +ゃ +ゅ +ょ “i” +ゃ +ゅ +ょ

き きゃ きゅ きょ ち ちゃ ちゅ ちょ び びゃ びゅ びょ

ぎ ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ ぢ ぢゃ ぢゅ ぢょ ぴ ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ

し しゃ しゅ しょ に にゃ にゅ にょ み みゃ みゅ みょ

じ じゃ じゅ じょ ひ ひゃ ひゅ ひょ り りゃ りゅ りょ

Example words:

しゅみ おもちゃ きゃく

ぎゅうにゅう としょかん じしょ

びょういん じてんしゃ べんきょう

しゃしん ゆうびんきょく じゅぎょう