Hiragana Chart: All 46 Characters and How to Learn Them

Short answer: hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic script. It has 46 basic characters, each standing for one sound (a vowel, a consonant plus a vowel, or ん). Two small marks turn 25 of them into new sounds, and small ゃ, ゅ, ょ make combined sounds like きゃ (kya). Most learners can read them all in one to two weeks.

The 46 basic hiragana

Read across: each row shares a consonant, each column a vowel.

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

That is 5 vowels, 7 full rows of 5, 3 in the y row, 2 in the w row and ん: 46 in total. The gaps in the y and w rows are real: modern Japanese has no yi, ye, wi, wu or we sounds in standard spelling. The old characters ゐ (wi) and ゑ (we) were dropped from standard spelling in 1946.

Dakuten and handakuten: 25 more sounds

Two small marks change the consonant:

• Dakuten (゛, two dashes) voices it: か ka becomes が ga.
• Handakuten (゜, a small circle) is used only on the h row: は ha becomes ぱ pa.

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

ぢ and づ sound like じ and ず and are used only in a small number of words.

Small ゃ, ゅ, ょ and small っ

A kana ending in -i followed by a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ makes one combined sound: き + ゃ = きゃ (kya), し + ゅ = しゅ (shu), ち + ょ = ちょ (cho). Eleven columns (k, s, t, n, h, m, r, g, j, b, p) times three gives the 33 combinations in most charts.

A small っ doubles the next consonant: きって (kitte, stamp) is different from きて (kite, come).

Three spelling rules beginners meet on day one

• は as a particle is read wa. わたしは (watashi wa, “as for me”).
• へ as a particle is read e. がっこうへ (gakkō e, “to school”).
• を is read o and is used almost only as the object particle.

Long vowels are written with an extra vowel: おかあさん (okaasan, mother).

Where hiragana comes from

Each hiragana is a simplified, flowing form of a kanji that was once used for its sound. For example, あ comes from 安, い from 以, う from 宇, え from 衣, and お from 於. You do not need this to read hiragana, but it explains why some hiragana look like parts of kanji.

What hiragana is used for

• Grammar: particles (は, が, を, に), verb and adjective endings (たべます, たかい).
• Words with no common kanji, or whose kanji is rare: ありがとう (thank you).
• Furigana: small hiragana printed next to kanji to show their reading, as in children’s books. See how to read kanji without furigana.
• Beginners’ and children’s texts, written mostly in hiragana.

How to learn hiragana fast

1. A row a day. Five new characters a day gets you through the main chart in under two weeks.
2. Read words, not just characters. やま (mountain), かわ (river), ひと (person).
3. Write each one a few times if it helps you remember the shape. Stroke order matters most for neat writing.
4. Watch the look-alikes: さ and ち, ぬ and め, ね, れ and わ, る and ろ, は and ほ.
5. Review the next day, and again a few days later.

After hiragana

Learn katakana next, then start with simple kanji. Many first kanji have readings you can now write in hiragana: 山 is やま, 川 is かわ, 人 is ひと. See what kanji are and how to learn kanji from zero. Every kanji in Kanji Guide shows its readings in kana; open the study app or the iPhone app when you are ready.