Hi guys, it’s Miko, and I hope you’re reading this after completing the

learning the 46 Hiragana (The 46 Katakana would be nice too, but this
is more of a concept walkthrough). You’ve probably noticed that out of
the 46 sounds, some sounds you’ve heard in anime or stuff are missing.
Ex. “Gomen” “Baka” “Desu”.

There are actually 104 native Japanese sounds, sorry if that sounds like
a lot. 104 Hiragana 104 Katakana = 208 things you’ll have to memorize.
But don’t worry, you got this! You’ll feel smart when you’re done, trust
me.

Take a good look at this chart. There are 25 additional hiragana you
must remember, but don’t worry, there’s a simple rule behind this. The
double quotation mark simple you see on the top right of the hiragana
is called Dakuten (濁点 Daku Ten). It “softens” the sound of the
original character. The pattern is:

K sound -> G sound (Ex. Ka -> Ga)

S sound -> Z sound (Ex. So -> Zo)
T sound -> D sound (Ex. Te -> De)
H sound -> B sound (Ex. Ha -> Ba) [Fu counts as an H sound btw.]

Note: There are 20 Dakuten hiragana to memorize.

Important Note:
You probably see that there are…

2 “ji”
じぢ

2 “zu”
ずづ

Don’t worry about ぢ or づ, as they are actually pretty rare. You usually
see those 2 only in Kanji pronunciations, so there is really no need to
pay attention to them for now. Just focus on じ and ず.

For the other symbol, it’s called Handakuten (半濁点 Han Daku Ten).
It’s indicated with a circle on the top right instead of quotation marks.
The reason why this is simple is because it’s only in the “H” category of
hiragana, and makes a “P” sound every time.
*Pa, Pi, Pu, Pe, Po.
And just one more thing. This is what we call “Combination Hiragana”.
It’s written with a smaller version of “Ya” “Yu” “Yo” attached to a
hiragana to make more sounds. Hopefully this concept is pretty simple,
as it’s just connecting sounds together.

The most confusing ones to grasp for beginners are probably:

Sha, Shu, Sho

Cha, Chu, Cho
Ja, Ju, Jo
And of course, all these things apply to katakana as well.
Introducing the small tsu

The small tsu is found in both hiragana and katakana. It represents a

“glottal stop”. It’s pretty much a pause in between the 2 sounds. Is it a
necessary component to the Japanese language? Of course. You can’t
ignore it, because it gives access to more sounds, and more sounds
means more words.

Notes:

If you see it at the end of the sentence, it represents a sudden stop,

like an exclamation mark.

Ex. なにっ!

If you see it by itself, it’s kind of like the sound they make in anime. You
can TL it as just exclamation marks, because that’s probably the best
English equivalent.

Ex. …っ!!

Katakana’s extension symbol, and Katakana exclusive sounds

ー <- This is the extension symbol in katakana. It basically just extends

the sound. Pretty much the opposite of the glottal stop.

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/
^ Here is an in-depth explanation of Katakana’s extension and extra
sounds.

Study hard guys, and keep up the good work.