Hiragana Chart

Hiragana has 46 basic characters, one for each syllable. か is ka, き is ki, く is ku. Add two small marks, a small ゃゅょ and the small っ that doubles a consonant, and you can write every sound of Japanese. Tap any character to hear it.

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The 46 basic hiragana

Tap any character to hear it.

Hiragana chart: one row per consonant, one column per vowel
	a	i	u	e	o
–
k
s
t
n
h
m
y
r
w
n

を (wo) is said o and only marks the object of a sentence. ん (n) is the only consonant that stands on its own; no word starts with it.

Dakuten and handakuten: が, ざ, だ, ば, ぱ

Two short strokes (゛, dakuten) make the consonant voiced: か ka → が ga, さ sa → ざ za, た ta → だ da, は ha → ば ba. A small circle (゜, handakuten) turns h into p: は ha → ぱ pa. ぢ and づ sound like じ and ず and are rare.

Dakuten and handakuten: が, ざ, だ, ば, ぱ
	a	i	u	e	o
g
z
d
b
p

Combined sounds (yōon): きゃ, しゅ, ちょ

A small ゃゅょ after a character that ends in i merges with it into one syllable: き ki + ゃ ya → きゃ kya. Written full size, it would be two syllables.

Combined sounds (yōon): きゃ, しゅ, ちょ
	ゃ	ゅ	ょ
ky
sh
ch
ny
hy
my
ry	りゃrya
gy
j
by
py

Hiragana that look alike

ぬ (nu) ends in a small loop; め (me) has none.
Same left stroke. The right part ends in a loop in ね (ne), a kick in れ (re) and a round curve in わ (wa).
ほ (ho) has an extra line on top that closes the right side; は (ha) does not.
Mirror images: the bottom curve of さ (sa) opens to the right, the one of ち (chi) to the left.
る (ru) closes with a small loop at the bottom; ろ (ro) stays open.
い (i) is two short strokes side by side; in り (ri) the right stroke is longer and curves down.

Hiragana, katakana or kanji?

Everyday Japanese mixes three scripts, often in one sentence. Hiragana and katakana are two sets of the same 46 sounds; kanji carry meaning.

Hiragana

Japanese words and grammar: verb and adjective endings, small words such as は (wa) and を (o), and words without a common kanji.
Katakana

Words from other languages, foreign names, brands and sound effects. A dash ー makes a vowel long.
Kanji

Chinese characters for the core of most words. Hiragana adds the ending: 食べる = 食 + べる.