Japanese Hiragana chart

In previous article, I explained that there are three types of characters in Japanese.
  The three types of Japanese characters >>


In this article, let me talk about the Hiragana chart!

After memorizing the Hiragana chart, please use this to check your memory of Hiragana:
   Hiragana quiz >>

Below is the Hiragana chart:

The line of A	あ (a)	い (i)	う (u)	え (e)	お (o)
The line of K	か (ka)	き (ki)	く (ku)	け (ke)	こ (ko)
The line of S	さ (sa)	し (shi)	す (su)	せ (se)	そ (so)
The line of T	た (ta)	ち (chi)	つ (tsu)	て (te)	と (to)
The line of N	な (na)	に (ni)	ぬ (nu)	ね (ne)	の (no)
The line of H	は (ha)	ひ (hi)	ふ (fu)	へ (he)	ほ (ho)
The line of M	ま (ma)	み (mi)	む (mu)	め (me)	も (mo)
The line of Y	や (ya)		ゆ (yu)		よ (yo)
The line of R	ら (ra)	り (ri)	る (ru)	れ (re)	ろ (ro)
The line of W	わ (wa)		を (wo)		ん (n)

Basically, 46 characters above are all the Hiragana you should remember.

Even if you can't remember all of the Hiragana above quickly, you don't need to be sad.

You will see many examples using Hiragana characters, and you will get used to them soon.

By the way, did you find the rule of the Hiragana chart?

Hiragana chart is classified by vowels and consonants.

In the hiragana chart, there are 10 lines, A, K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, and W.

They are consonants. 

However, there is no consonants for the first line, A.

For each line, there are 5 letters correspondent with 5 vowels, a, i, u, e, and o.

It is the rule of the Hiragana chart.

However, you may have two things which you think are strange.

#1. There are only three words in the line of Y!

Yes, there are only three characters in that line.

Probably, the reason is that they are difficult to pronounce.

Can you pronounce "yi" and "ye"?

For a Japanese speaker, it is very uncomfortable to pronounce!

Actually, in the very old Japanese character chart, "yi" and "ye" were included.

However, they are normally not used now.

#2. The line of W is strange!

Yes, that line is very strange.

There are only three characters in this line.

In addition to that, why is 'ん(n)' here?

Please just remember this line.

Actually, 'ん(n)' should not be included in this line.

But 'ん(n)' is a special character for Japanese.

So we just want to put it somewhere.

That's why we put it at the end of the Hiragana chart normally.

I need to explain one more thing about the line of W.

It is 'を(wo)'.

Actually, 'を(wo)' is also a special character in Japanese.

The case to use 'を(wo)' is limited.

For knowing the details of 'を(wo)', please check this:
  Particle "を(wo)" >>

'を(wo)' is always put just after objects (noun) of the sentence.

For example, if you eat a cake, you will put 'を(wo)' after cake, like:

   "cakeを"

Do these sound hard?

But if you remember all Hiragana characters, you can pronounce all Japanese sounds!

Let's learn more Hiragana rule, "Dull sound", "P-sound",  "Syllabic nasal", and "Contracted sound", from the next article.

Also, please use the Hiragana quiz to confirm if you remember all Hiragana characters!
   Hiragana quiz >>

I hope this article helps you study Japanese!
Thank you for reading!

Related articles:

    Hiragana quiz >>

    Japanese characters >>

    Dull sound >>

    P-sound >>

    Syllabic nasal >>

    Contracted sound >>

    Romaji chart >>