Hiragana - ひらがな
The first step to learning the Japanese language is to learn the alphabet. Or, at least, to learn the sounds that exist in the language. There are absolutely no "tones" in Japanese like in many other asian languages and there are only 2 exceptions within the alphabet which will be explained later. The Japanese alphabet does not contain letters but, instead, contains characters and, technically, they are not alphabets but character sets. The characters in the chart below are called Hiragana. Hiragana is the main alphabet or character set for Japanese. Japanese also consists of two other character sets - Kanji (Chinese characters), which we will get into later, and another alphabet/character set, Katakana, which is mainly used for foreign words. Katakana will be covered in Lesson 2. Don't wait to move on until you have all Hiragana characters memorized - learn them as you continue to go through the other lessons.
There are 5 vowels in Japanese. (a), pronounced "ahh", (i), pronounced like "e" in "eat", (u), pronounced like "oo" in "soon", (e), pronounced like "e" in "elk", and (o), pronounced "oh". All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only "consonant" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l".
あ a
い i
う u
え e
お o
か ka
き ki
く ku
け ke
こ ko
が ga
ぎ gi
ぐ gu
げ ge
ご go
さ sa
し shi
す su
せ se
そ so
ざ za
じ ji
ず zu
ぜ ze
ぞ zo
た ta
ち chi
つ tsu
て te
と to
だ da
ぢ ji
づ zu
で de
ど do
な na
に ni
ぬ nu
ね ne
の no
は ha
ひ hi
ふ fu
へ he
ほ ho
ば ba
び bi
ぶ bu
べ be
ぼ bo
ぱ pa
ぴ pi
ぷ pu
ぺ pe
ぽ po
ま ma
み mi
む mu
め me
も mo
や ya
ゆ yu
よ yo
ら ra
り ri
る ru
れ re
ろ ro
わ wa
を wo
ん n/m
Combinations
きゃ kya
きゅ kyu
きょ kyo
ぎゃ gya
ぎゅ gyu
ぎょ gyo
しゃ sha
しゅ shu
しょ sho
じゃ ja
じゅ ju
じょ jo
ちゃ cha
ちゅ chu
ちょ cho
にゃ nya
にゅ nyu
にょ nyo
ひゃ hya
ひゅ hyu
ひょ hyo
びゃ bya
びゅ byu
びょ byo
ぴゃ pya
ぴゅ pyu
ぴょ pyo
みゃ mya
みゅ myu
みょ myo
りゃ rya
りゅ ryu
りょ ryo
Exceptions:
1. The Hiragana は (ha) is pronounced "wa" when it immediately follows the topic of the sentence. This character is usually only pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word.
2. The Hiragana へ (he) is pronounced "e" when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.
Click here if you'd like to know why these two exceptions exist.
Note: You probably noticed in the chart above that there are 2 characters pronounced "zu" and 2 characters pronounced "ji". The characters づ (zu) and ぢ (ji) are very rarely used. づ (zu) only occurs when there is a つ (tsu) in front of it like in つづく (tsuzuku - to continue) or when a Kanji (Chinese character) that has a reading which starts with つ (tsu) is paired at the end with another character changing the つ (tsu) to a づ (zu). The same applies for the Hiragana ぢ (ji). Since they are used so rarely I wouldn't worry about them too much. I will let you know whenever we come upon a word in which they are used.
Some people wonder why "yi", "ye", "wi", "wu", and "we" are missing. There aren't characters for "yi", "ye", or "wu". There is a ゐ (wi) and a ゑ (we) but these were deemed obsolete in 1946 and were replaced by い (i) and え (e) respectively.
