Japanese Grammar | Step by Step Guide to Learning Hiragana

You’ve decided to learn a new language, Japanese. That’s great!!

Let’s get you started with this beautiful journey of learning Japanese. As you are aware, learning a new language starts with learning the script.

In Japanese, there are three scripts to learn:

Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

Just like in Mandarin, Kanjis are logographic, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. 

A set of 2,136 characters has been officially declared as “Kanji for Everyday Use”. 

However unlike Mandarin, Japanese Kanji cannot be used alone. Two additional, syllable-based scripts are used for words without corresponding Kanji and grammatical patterns.

Due to this, Kanji along with Hiragana and Katakana make the Japanese alphabet.

Sounds overwhelming? But no need to worry!

We are here to help you through our course. Hiragana and Katakana, each consist of just 46 syllables. They are easier to learn. 

Let us first introduce you to Hiragana.

Learning Hiragana – The ‘A’ Series

Let’s start with the very first series of syllable:

Now, let’s see some words containing these syllables:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ka’ Series

The second series of the Hiragana Alphabet is Ka:

Some words including these syllables:

NOTE – when a word starts with ‘か’ or ‘き’ it is pronounced as ‘kha’ or ‘khi’ instead of ‘ka’ or ‘ki’ respectively.

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Sa’ Series

Some examples:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ta’ Series

Some examples:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Na’ Series

Some examples:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ha’ Series

Some examples:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ma’ Series

Some words to practice:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ya’ Series

Examples of words including these syllables:

Learning Hiragana – The ‘Ra’ Series

Words including these syllables:

The Last 3 Hiragana Syllables

Examples:

Additional Syllables

Use of Dakuten

Use of Handakuten

Handakuten converts the は (ha) series into ぱ = the ‘Pa’ series.

Use of Small Alphabet – Sokuon (促音)

The sokuon (促音) is a symbol in the form of a small hiragana or katakana tsu.

In less formal language it is called chiisai tsu (小さいつ) or chiisana tsu (小さなつ), meaning “small tsu“.

It can never appear at the beginning of the word.

The small つ is used to stress the word by doubling the consonant.

For example:

Other Syllables – Youon (拗音)

The youon (拗音) is a hiragana in combination of a syllable ending in i, such as き (ki), with a smaller version of one of the three y syllables (ya, yu or yo).

や、ゆ and よ are often used in combination with the basic syllables き、し、ち、に、ひ、み and り。

This way a word like しゅみ will not be pronounced as shi-yu-mi, but shyumi.

Are you a Flexi Classes student already?

Learn more about Hiragana in the following Flexi lessons:

Hiragana (Intro)
More Hiragana (Intro)

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And that’s it! A quick and easy lesson for your to add to your knowledge bank.

Before you go, here’s a list of Japanese blog articles you might find interesting:

• Japanese Verbs
• Japanese Slang
• Time in Japanese
• Greetings in Japanese

Make sure to visit our Japanese Grammar Bank regularly, as we constantly add new lessons to help you learn or review your knowledge.

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