Hiragana⁓ひらがな⁓
To begin with, let's learn hiragana (ひらがな). There are basic hiraganas, and some irregular hiraganas. Irregular hiraganas are written with two dots in the upper right corner of a character to indicate voicing of a consonant, a small circle in the upper right corner of a character to indicate the initial p-consonant sound, a contracted sound and a double consonant.
⁓ ⁓ Hiragana list ⁓ ⁓
| Vowel | |
|---|---|
| Consonant | Character [character with ゛] (character with ゜) |
| Pronunciation [pronunciation with] (pronunciation with ゜) |
*There are some characters that can be shown in two ways with roman characters, so another way will be shown with {} in this table. The one without {} is more near to actual pronunciation.
*In "r" line, the actual pronunciation is near to "l" sound, but the notation is "r".
*Since ん is a special character which does not have a vowel, I separated it from the list.
| Consonant\Vowel | a | i | u | e | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (No consonant) | あ | い | う | え | お |
| a | i | u | e | o | |
| k | か [が] | き [ぎ] | く [ぐ] | け [げ] | こ [ご] |
| ka [ga] | ki [gi] | ku [gu] | ke [ge] | ko [go] | |
| s | さ [ざ] | し [じ] | す [ず] | せ [ぜ] | そ [ぞ] |
| sa [za] | shi{si} [zi] | su [zu] | se [ze] | so [zo] | |
| t | た [だ] | ち [ぢ] | つ [づ] | て [で] | と [ど] |
| ta [da] | chi{ti} [ji] | tu {tsu} [du] | te [de] | to [do] | |
| n | な | に | ぬ | ね | の |
| na | ni | nu | ne | no | |
| h | は [ば] (ぱ) | ひ [び] (ぴ) | ふ [ぶ] (ぷ) | へ [べ] (ぺ) | ほ [ぼ] (ぽ) |
| ha [ba] (pa) | hi [bi] (pi) | hu [bu] (pu) | he [be] (pe) | ho [bo] (po) | |
| m | ま | み | む | め | も |
| ma | mi | mu | me | mo | |
| y | や | |
ゆ | |
よ |
| ya | yu | yo | |||
| r | ら | り | る | れ | ろ |
| ra | ri | ru | re | ro | |
| w | わ | |
を | ||
| wa | wo | ||||
| ん |
|---|
| nn{n} |
There are some more ways to show pronunciations below. We use small や, ゆ and after some characters. For example, the word for Japan's capital and biggest city, Tokyo, has this sound. "とうきょう"
| Base /Small characters | や | ゆ | よ |
|---|---|---|---|
| き[ぎ] | きゃ[ぎゃ] | きゅ[ぎゅ] | きょ[ぎょ] |
| kya | kyu | kyo | |
| し[じ] | しゃ[じゃ] | しゅ[じゅ] | しょ[じょ] |
| sha | shu | sho | |
| ち[ぢ] | ちゃ[ぢゃ] | ちゅ[ぢゅ] | ちょ[ぢょ] |
| cha | chu | cho | |
| に | にゃ | にゅ | にょ |
| nya | nyu | nyo | |
| ひ[び](ぴ) | ひゃ[びゃ](ぴゃ) | ひゅ[びゅ](ぴゅ) | ひょ[びょ](ぴょ) |
| hya | hyu | hyo | |
| み | みゃ | みゅ | みょ |
| mya | myu | myo | |
| り | りゃ | りゅ | りょ |
| rya | ryu | ryo |
This is a YouTube video that shows you how to write and pronounce basic hiragana.
(by Japanese Calligrapher Takumi)
This video shows how to write and pronounce basic hiragana and it is good to see the order of strokes.