Beginner Japanese/Kana

Welcome to the kana lessons course, where you will learn how to read, write, and pronounce hiragana and katakana, the two syllabaries of the Japanese language.

Like kanji, the kana are not just geometric shapes but rather three-dimensional paths. Character strokes must therefore be arranged in a certain way.

Reading

• Japanese – Hiragana and Katakana.

Lesson

The kana consists of two scripts, namely 平仮名(ひらがな) hiragana and 片仮名(かたかな) katakana. Hiragana is mainly used to write grammatical elements and native Japanese words not written in 漢(かん)字(じ) kanji, while katakana is used to write foreign names and vocabulary.

Characters

Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
a	あ	ア
i	い	イ
u	う	ウ
e	え	エ
o	お	オ
ka	か	カ
ki	き	キ
ku	く	ク
ke	け	ケ
ko	こ	コ
sa	さ	サ
shi	し	シ
su	す	ス
se	せ	セ
so	そ	ソ
ta	た	タ
chi	ち	チ
tsu	つ	ツ
te	て	テ
to	と	ト
na	な	ナ
ni	に	ニ
nu	ぬ	ヌ
ne	ね	ネ
no	の	ノ
ha	は	ハ
hi	ひ	ヒ
fu	ふ	フ
he	へ	ヘ
ho	ほ	ホ
ma	ま	マ
mi	み	ミ
mu	む	ム
me	め	メ
mo	も	モ
ya	や	ヤ
yu	ゆ	ユ
yo	よ	ヨ
ra	ら	ラ
ri	り	リ
ru	る	ル
re	れ	レ
ro	ろ	ロ
wa	わ	ワ
wo	を	ヲ
n	ん	ン

Practice

The kana are generally best learned by rote though mnemonics can help with the initial memorization. Find yourself a nice drilling program or website and practice every day until you can consistently remember the entire kana. Build on a small subset and work from there.

You will find links to useful software in the textbook Practice section.

Mix in plenty of writing practice as you learn the readings. It will take many repetitions to get used to the movements to make your characters look nice. You can practice writing on this sheet.

Further reading

• Memorizing the Hiragana.
• Memorizing the Katakana.
• Japanese writing system.

← Introduction to the Japanese Writing System

Beginner Japanese

Kanji →