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Hiragana in Detail

The Hiragana Syllabus

Characteristics and Usage

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Hiragana - ひらがな

The first step in learn japanese language is to learn the japanese alphabets. Alphabets listed below in the table are called hiragana alphabets or hiragana characters. Japanese language also consists of Chinese characters called Kanji, which we will discuss later, and another japanese alphabet set called katakana, which is used for foreign language words. Katakana is the next topic.

There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language:

• [ a ] pronounced as "aa"

• [ i ] pronounced as "ee" or as "e" in "eat"

• [ u ] pronounced as "oo" in "soon"

• [ e ] pronounced as "e" in "elk"

• [ o ] pronounced as "o" in "more"

All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of [ n ]. The only "consanent" 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".

Hiragana Classification Chart - 平仮名の分類一覧

Hiragana's are divided into three groups. Shown below are three hiragana charts for 3 hiragana groups. Please note that 3rd hiragana group (3rd Hiragana Chart) is made of combination letters.

Hiragana Chart1
Exceptions:
1. は (ha) is pronounced "wa" when it immediately follows the subject. It is usually only pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word.
2. へ (he) is pronounced "e" when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.
Hiragana Chart2
Hiragana Chart3