Japanese - Hiragana

Hiragana ひらがな

Probably the most important thing to learn for beginners of Japanese is hiragana. I know that there are a lot or Japanese books in romaji (romanized Japanese) but you really should learn hiragana and use it instead of romaji. It will go a long way, trust me!!

Below there is a list of the characters in hiragana, but first I want to give you some links to sites for learning hiragana.

About.com → http://japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm

   - A nice guide that includes stroke order and direction, which is IMPORTANT

Writing practice → http://kotoba.littlestar.jp/hiragana-50.html

   - This is actually a site for Japanese kids but it is a nice resource

   - Pick your practice worksheet and download it in an Adobe file to print it out

SOUND FILES! → http://www.languageguide.org/im/alpha/jp/hiragana.jsp

   - Put your mouse over the symbol and hear it read to you

The below overview is exactly that. An overview. This entry is not the most thorough explanation of hiragana so please use the sites above to get a really nice understanding of hiragana.

---------------Hiragana---------------

※ Note - vowels are just like Spanish

a = ah (like in tall)

i = ee (like the ee in meet)

u = oo (like the oo in cool)

e = eh (like in leg)

o = oh (like in go)

あ　a　　　　い　i　　　　う　u　　　　え　e　　　　お　o

か　ka　　　き　ki　　　く　ku　　　　け　ke　　　こ　ko

さ　sa　　　し　shi　　　す　su　　　せ　se　　　そ　so

た　ta　　　ち　chi　　　つ　tsu　　　て　te　　　と　to

な　na　　　に　ni　　　ぬ　nu　　　ね　ne　　　の　no 

は　ha　　　ひ　hi　　　ふ　fu　　　へ　he　　　ほ　ho 

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

を　(w)o　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ん　–n 

※Notes on accents

In Japanese the hiragana and katakana characters will have accents. These will either be ﾞ (two small marks) or ﾟ which is a small circle. The accent mark is always at the top-right corner of the character. For example： は ば and ぱ . 

The ONLY time you see a small circle is over は ひ ふ へ and ほ. Also note that not all characters can be accented. The text below shows you how accents change the sounds of the characters.

※ If accented with two marks

K becomes G （か is ka and が is ga）

S becomes Z （さ is sa and ざ is za）

T becomes D （た is ta and だ is da）

H becomes B （は is ha and ば is ba）

(all other consonants cannot be accented)

EXCEPTIONS

し (shi) becomes ji (not zi)

Accented つ (tsu) usually sounds more like zu than du

Accented ち (chi) usually sounds more like ji than di

※If accented with the small circle

H becomes P （は is ha and ぱ is pa）

(On small fonts it can be a little hard to distinguish the circle)

※Notes on slides

If a small や ゆ or よ comes after き し ち に ひ み or り then this is called a "slide." What this small や ゆ or よ does to the preceding syllable is create a blend of the two sounds. This is a little confusing so I have illustrated it below.

き (ki) + ゃ (little ya) = きゃ (kya)

き (ki) + ゅ (little yu) = きゅ (kyu) (like "cute" without the t sound)

き (ki) + ょ (little yo) = きょ (kyo)

Usually the consonant from the syllable is blended with the ya yu or yo sound.

However, the change is a little different with し and ち

しゃ = sha

しゅ = shu (like "shoe")

しょ = sho (like "show")

ちゃ = cha

ちゅ = chu

ちょ = cho

※Last note

You will often see a small つ in words. This small つ creates a double consonant.

For example - けっか is read kekka (NOT ketsuka) The small つ makes the k sound in か a double (or hard) consonant.

This is just a really brief overview. Please use the links I gave you above to practice.