The Hiragana Syllabary

As promised, here I bring you the full Hiragana syllabary!

As I told you in the previous post, the Hiragana is the first writing system you should learn when you start learning the Japanese language. It is composed of syllables that make every sound in Japanese.

I wrote the pronunciation in parenthesis to the side of each character.

First the vowels:

a　あ  (ah)
i　 い  (ee)
u　う   (oo)
e　え   (eh)
o　お   (oh)

Next, the characters that start with 'K'. Remember, this is a Syllabary, so the consonants will be paired with a vowel to make syllables:

ka　か  ('Kah')
ki　き   ('Kee')
ku　く   ('Koo')
ke　け  ('Keh')
ko　こ  ('Koh')

Now the characters that start with 'S':

sa　さ   (sah)
shi　し  (shee)
su　す  (soo)
se　せ  (seh)
so　そ   (soh)

The characters that start with 'T':

ta 　た   (tah)
chi　ち   (chee)
tsu　つ   (tsoo)
te　て     (teh)
to　と     (toh)

Notice that there is no 'ti' (tee) or 'tu' (too) character; instead, there is 'chi' and 'tsu'.

The characters that start with 'N':

na　な  (nah)
ni　に  (nee)
nu　ぬ  (noo)
ne　ね  (neh)
no　の  (noh)

The ones that start with 'H':

ha　は  (ha)
hi　ひ  (hee)
fu　ふ  (foo; hoo)
he　へ  (heh)
ho　ほ  (hoh)


The ones that start with 'M':

ma　ま  (mah)
mi　み  (me)
mu　む  (moo)
me　め  (meh)
mo　も  (moh)

The ones that start with 'r':

ra　ら  (rah)　
ri　り  (ree)
ru　る  (roo)
re　れ  (reh)
ro　ろ  (roh)

The 'r' sound in Japanese is a bit rolled, and sometimes may resemble an 'l' sound.

Now, the following ones are special, since they create more sounds by being combined with other characters, which you will see in a moment:

ya　や
yu　ゆ
yo　よ

And finally, the characters that start with 'w' and the consonant 'n', which is the only character that stands alone in the syllabary:

wa　わ
wo　を
n　   ん

There are additional sounds, created by adding diacritical marks to the Hiragana characters:

ga　が               pa　ぱ               da　だ              za　ざ               ba　ば
gi　ぎ                pi　ぴ                ji　ぢ                ji 　じ               bi　び
gu　ぐ               pu　ぷ               zu　づ              zu　ず              bu　ぶ
ge　げ               pe　ぺ               de　で 　         ze　ぜ              be　べ
go　ご               po　ぽ              do　ど               zo　ぞ              bo　ぼ

More sounds are created by combining や, ゆ, and よ  with other characters. They have to be written smaller:

kya　きゃ            sha　しゃ               cha　ちゃ           nya　にゃ              hya　ひゃ                
kyu　きゅ            shu　しゅ               chu　ちゅ          nyu　にゅ              hyu　ひゅ                  
kyo　きょ            sho　しょ                cho　ちょ           nyo　にょ              hyo　ひょ                  

rya　りゃ             mya　みゃ            pya　ぴゃ
ryu　りゅ             myu　みゅ           pyu　ぴゅ
ryo　りょ              myo　みょ           pyo　ぴょ

gya　ぎゃ             ja　じゃ                  bya　びゃ        
gyu　ぎゅ             ju　じゅ                 byu   びゅ    
gyo　ぎょ             jo　じょ                  byo　びょ      

If your don't write them smaller, and instead write them side by side, then the new sound is not created; for example, if you write しや instead of  しゃ, you are writing and saying 'Shiya' and not 'Sha'.

This is it for the Hiragana. Previously I told you that the best number of characters to learn at a time is five, and surely you can tell why now after seeing the Hiragana. You can practice each set of five and end with the six ones that are set apart, the や, ゆ, よ, わ, を, and ん characters.

Start today with the vowel sounds あ　い　う　え　お, and progress from there!

Here are five practice words with these characters so that you test yourself and learn some vocabulary on the way:

あい - Love
あお - Blue
おおい - Many, Much, Numerous
いう - To say
いいえ- No

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Until next time!