Learn the Hiragana by Maryam Adrianto (Issue #3)

The Hiragana is one of the three characters used in the Japanese language which consists of letters that represent a syllable. There are 46 basic Hiragana characters, as written below, and there are additional characters with the help of Dakuten ( ﾞ) and Handakuten ( ﾟ) to modify the way these syllables are pronounced. But, since there are so many of them, we’ll just introduce the basic Hiragana characters! If you have a Japanese friend near you, ask them to help you with these pronunciations! It’s also fun to try and write these to practice memorizing them… if you’re willing to take on the challenge.

A (aa) あ

I (ee) い

U (oo) う

E (eh) え

O (o) お

KA か

KI き

KU く

KE け

KO こ

SA さ

SHI し

SU す

SE せ

SO そ

TA た

CHI ち

TSU つ

TE て

TO と

NA な

NI に

NU ぬ

NE ね

NO の

HA は

HI ひ

FU ふ

HE へ

HO ほ

MA ま

MI み

MU む

ME め

MO も

YA や

YU ゆ

YO よ

RA ら

RI り

RU る

RE れ

RO ろ

WA わ

N ん

WO を

To test your understanding, feel free to try and make out how to read these:

1. つかれた
2. わたしは
3. あれ
4. つき
5. にほん
6. ひと
7. くに
8. ちかてつ
9. くるま
10. おいしい

Resources used:

Japanese-lesson.com. “Hiragana | Characters | Japanese-Lesson.com.” Japanese-Lesson.com, japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/index.html.