# Hiragana Essentials: Quick Learning Guide with Memory Tricks > Learn everything you need to know about Japanese hiragana. Learn their basics, how they are pronounced, example words and more. **URL:** https://migaku.com/blog/japanese/the-japanese-language-hiragana **Last Updated:** 2024-08-20 **Tags:** fundamentals, hiragana --- Learning hiragana is essential for mastering Japanese. It forms the foundation of Japanese pronunciation and is crucial for accessing Japanese resources, as most quality textbooks and learning materials, just like our [Migaku Japanese Course](/learn-japanese), require knowledge of hiragana. Essentially, it's the first step in learning Japanese. Many people spend too much time learning hiragana, even though this can be achieved in a week or less. Obviously, your pace will vary, but if you follow our guide below, you will be able to read hiragana in no time. To achieve this, you should follow these steps: 1. Each section introduces five new hiragana characters, each with its own **mnemonics**, which are images that help you remember the character. Read the explanation, listen to the audio of the character being pronounced, and visualize the character with the mnemonic image. _Don't worry about memorizing the example words, as they are just provided to give you an idea of some words that a give character can appear in._ 2. After reviewing all five characters in the section, you will be prompted with an **exercise**. Repeat this exercise until you feel comfortable recalling the pronunciation of each character before moving on. > There won't be any writing practice involved! In today's day and age, writing is something most of us rarely use, and practicing it, especially in the beginning, can easily multiply the time it takes you to learn to read hiragana. > > Our recommendation is that if you want to learn to write Japanese eventually, hold back until you are a bit more advanced in the language. Now let's take a closer look at 'hiragana' ひらがな, or in kanji . Hiragana actually has its origin in Chinese characters. The shape of the hiragana originates from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy. In the table below you can see how this evolution took place, starting with the kanji on top, and ending with hiragana at the bottom. A graphic showing how Japanese hiragana originated as simplified forms of similar-sounding Chinese characters. Hiragana is a syllabary where every symbol represents an entire syllable. Hiragana contains _5 singular vowels_, _42 consonant-vowel combinations_, and _1 singular consonant_ (ん; _n_). Hiragana has many roles in Japanese. One such usage is to write suffixes for a kanji root word. To make this more concrete, in English the word "talked" consists of the root word "talk", and the suffix "-ed." In Japanese there exists which consists of a kanji root (talk) and a hiragana suffix した (did). This usage is known as 'okurigana.' Aside from grammatical inflection, other uses include the function words in the language, such as particles, grammatical structures, as well as forming standalone words for which there are no kanji or whose kanji form is obscure. Below you can see these different usages color coded. A graphic shows a sentence with highlighted parts in different colors to illustrate hiragana usage in Japanese, with functions labeled below the sentence. Hiragana is the script you will be dealing with the most when reading Japanese. Starting from the next section, we will slowly introduce you to five characters at a time and provide you with mnemonic images to help you remember them. Below is a chart that contains all of the modern hiragana. We will be covering these in the following sections. | A | I | U | E | O | | :-----------------------------------------------------------------: | :-----------------------------------------------------------------: | :-----------------------------------------------------------------: | :-----------------------------------------------------------------: | :-----------------------------------------------------------------: | | あ | い | う | え | お | | か | き | く | け | こ | | さ | し | す | せ | そ | | た | ち | つ | て | と | | な | に | ぬ | ね | の | | は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ | | ま | み | む | め | も | | ら | り | る | れ | ろ | | や | | ゆ | | よ | | わ | | | | を | | ん | | | | | ## あいうえお Now that we’ve covered the basics of hiragana, we can introduce you to the first five characters, which are also the pure vowels in Japanese: あ・い・う・え・お. The first character is あ, which is represented as _a_, and its pronunciation is similar to the _a_ in father. This character has a slightly tilted A written inside of it. The second character is い, which is represented as _i_, and its pronunciation is similar to the _ee_ in eel. If you look closely, you can see two eels (_i_) that meet each other. The third character is う, which is represented as _u_, and its pronunciation is similar to the _oo_ in shoot. This one should be easy, as it looks like a sideways u with a line above it. The fourth character is え, which is represented as _e_, and its pronunciation is close to the _e_ in bet. This elegant (_e_) dancer is dancing, can you see it? The fifth character is お, which is represented as _o_, and its pronunciation is close to the _o_ in story. Olaf (_o_) is proud of his cool new bike! Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select the first row of hiragana, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with the first hiragana row before moving on. ## かきくけこ The next five are か・き・く・け・こ. The first character is か, which is represented as _ka_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _k_ in skate and the _a_ in father. Look at the character and maybe you can see a martial artist doing a karate (_ka_) kick. The second character is き, which is represented as _ki_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _k_ in skate and the _ee_ in meet. This character looks a bit like a key (_ki_). The third character is く, which is represented as _ku_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _k_ in skate and the _oo_ in shoot. Can you see it? This is just the beak of a cuckoo (_ku_) going cu-coo. The fourth character is け, which is represented as _ke_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _k_ in skate and the _e_ in bet. And this is just a nice keg (_ke_). The horizontal line being part of its metal binding. The fifth character is こ, which is represented as _ko_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _k_ in skate and the _o_ in story. And this is just a pretty nice coin (_ko_). Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select the first and second row of hiragana, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these two hiragana rows before moving on. ## さしすせそ The next five are さ・し・す・せ・そ. The first character is さ, which is represented as _sa_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _s_ in soup and the _a_ in father. Look at this big sign (_sa_) warning us of danger. The second character is し, which is represented as _shi_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _sh_ in sheep and the _ee_ in meet. Here we have a friendly shepard with a sheep (_shi_) and his stick. The third character is す, which is represented as _su_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _s_ in soup and the _oo_ in shoot. Oh, it's Steven and he is swinging (_su_) in the curtains again! The fourth character is せ, which is represented as _se_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _s_ in soup and the _e_ in bet. Where we have a nice señor (_se_) with his hat. The fifth character is そ, which is represented as _so_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _s_ in soup and the _o_ in story. I tried to sew (_so_) a zigzag stitch. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select the first, second and third row of hiragana, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these three hiragana rows before moving on. ## たちつてと The next five are た・ち・つ・て・と. The first character is た, which is represented as _ta_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _t_ in stop and the _a_ in father. This just looks exactly like a combination of the letters _t_ and _a_ (_ta_). The second character is ち, which is represented as _chi_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _tch_ in itchy and the _ee_ in meet. What do we have here? A jumping cheerleader (_chi_). The third character is つ, which is represented as _tsu_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _ts_ in cats and the _oo_ in shoot. Who doesn’t love cats (_tsu_)! See how fluffy its tail is. The fourth character is て, which is represented as _te_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _t_ in stop and the _e_ in bet. And this just looks like a slightly out of shape T. The fifth character is と, which is represented as _to_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _t_ in stop and the _o_ in story. Ouch! Can you see the nail sticking in this toe (_to_). That's gotta hurt. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the fourth, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these four hiragana rows before moving on. ## なにぬねの The next five are な・に・ぬ・ね・の. The first character is な, which is represented as _na_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _n_ in not and the _a_ in father. This looks like someone was creative and wrote a pretty stylized _na_. The second character is に, which is represented as _ni_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _n_ in not and the _ee_ in meet. This is my knee (_ni_). Beautiful ain’t it? The third character is ぬ, which is represented as _nu_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _n_ in not and the _oo_ in shoot. A delicious bowl of noodles (_nu_). The fourth character is ね, which is represented as _ne_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _n_ in not and the _e_ in bet. This one looks like a _ne_ written in a pretty stylized font. The fifth character is の, which is represented as _no_, and its pronunciation is close to a combination of the _n_ in not and the _o_ in story. It's a sign that tells you ‘no smoking’ (_no_). Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the fifth, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these five hiragana rows before moving on. ## はひふへほ The next five are は・ひ・ふ・へ・ほ. The first character is は, which is represented as _ha_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _h_ in hat and the _a_ in father. As you see, this character just looks like a combined _H_ and _a_ (_ha_). The second character is ひ, which is represented as _hi_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _h_ in hue and the _ee_ in meet. He (_hi_) has a big nose, doesn’t he? The third character is ふ, which is represented as _fu_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _ph_ in phew and the _oo_ in shoot. The famous Mt. Fuji (_fu_) in Japan. You should go there one day. The fourth character is へ, which is represented as _he_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _h_ in hat and the _e_ in bet. We got a nice arrow here pointing towards heaven (_he_), where we all go after we die. The fifth character is ほ, which is represented as _ho_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _h_ in hat and the _o_ in story. This just looks like は, with a whole (_ho_) line added to it. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the sixth, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these six hiragana rows before moving on. ## まみむめも The next five are ま・み・む・め・も. The first character is ま, which is represented as _ma_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _m_ in much and the _a_ in father. I want to go on a trip when I see this beautiful ship with its mast (_ma_). The second character is み, which is represented as _mi_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _m_ in much and the _ee_ in meet. Me (_mi_)? I just turned 21. The third character is む, which is represented as _mu_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _m_ in much and the _oo_ in shoot. This cute cow is greeting us with a moo (mu). The fourth character is め, which is represented as _me_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _m_ in much and the _e_ in bet. The Japanese word for "eye" is me (_me_). The fifth character is も, which is represented as _mo_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _m_ in much and the _o_ in story. To catch more (_mo_) fish, you should attach some bait to this hook. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the seventh, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these seven hiragana rows before moving on. ## らりるれろ The next five are ら・り・る・れ・ろ. > It's worth mentioning that the romaji (letter representations) of Japanese sounds is sometimes going to diverge greatly from what you might expect. This is especially the case with the hiragana in this section. To avoid overwhelming you with a pronunciation info dump this early on in the process, we decided to cover them later. For the time being, just focus on getting a general understanding with the provided hints and replaying the native audio a few times. The first character is ら, which is represented as _ra_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _rah rah_ as if you were cheering and the _la la_ like singing. Here we have cute little rabbit (_ra_) with some floppy ears. The second character is り, which is represented as _ri_, and the pronunciation is between the _ree_ in reed and the _lee_ in leek. What a cute ribbon (_ri_), isn’t it? The third character is る, which is represented as _ru_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _ru_ in rule and the _loo_ in look. Our route (_ru_) is a bit complicated this time. The fourth character is れ, which is represented as _re_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _re_ in retch and the _le_ in led. Even the sight of blood makes Reginald retch (_re_). The fifth character is ろ, which is represented as _ro_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _ro_ in road and the _lo_ in load. Be careful! There're some bends in the road (_ro_)! Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the eighth, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these eight hiragana rows before moving on. ## やゆよ The next three are や・ゆ・よ. The first character is や, which is represented as _ya_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _y_ in yacht and the _a_ in father. I normally only like dogs, but this yak (_ya_) is also cute. The second character is ゆ, which is represented as _yu_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _y_ in yacht and the _oo_ in shoot. That’s quite the unique (_yu_) looking fish. The third character is よ, which is represented as _yo_, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the _y_ in yacht and the _o_ in story. He is playing with his yo-yo (_yo_) again. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows, from the first to the ninth, and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with these nine hiragana rows before moving on. ## わをん And lastly, the final three: わ・を・ん. The first character is わ, which is represented as _wa_, and its pronunciation is close to the _wa_ in walk. Look closely and you can see a wave in the water (_wa_). The second character is _を_, which is represented as _wo_. This character is unique because it is represented by _wo_ when romanized, but is pronounced similar to the _o_ in story, or the お we already learned. Additionally, this character only functions as a particle on its own and is never combined with other characters to form words. As a result, there are no example words for を. It just became a bit warmer and Olga already wants to swim in the pool. She dips her toe in and goes: _oooh!_, because the water is still cold. The third character in this column (and the last hiragana character) is ん, which is represented as _n_, and its pronunciation is close to the _ng_ in long. It’s important to note that ん is also a unique character, as the way you pronounce it changes slightly depending on the sound that follows. But for now, just remember it as the _ng_ in long. If this doesn't look like a stylized _n_, I don’t know what does. Now that you’ve carefully read this chapter, it's time to practice. Open the following link, select all hiragana rows and press the red study button. Practice until you feel comfortable with all hiragana. As you can see, Japanese is a quite complex, but interesting language. If you want to learn all of this through a comprehensive course, we recommend you to try out our Migaku Japanese Academy course, which will allow you to quickly [learn Japanese from anime](/learn-japanese).