Hiragana

Hiragana (Kanji: 平仮名 - Hiragana: ひらがな) is one of the two phonetic kana (the other being Katakana) used in modern Japanese reading and writing.

Hiragana Chart

• * は has both the pronunciation of わ (wa) and は (ha) in certain cases. When used as the topic marker particle, it is pronounced as "wa", otherwise "ha".
• ** ふ is pronounced as "fu" and is romanized as "fu".
• *** を is usually pronounced "o" rather than "wo" ("wo" is usually heard more often in singing rather than regular speech), but is more frequently Romanized as "wo" to distinguish between the vowel "お" which is Romanized as "o".
• **** ん is the only true "consonant" in Japanese. It never starts a word. For example, 飲物 (Hiragana: のみもの, nomimono: drink, beverage) would never be written as んおみもんお (n o mi mo n o).

Harder Pronouncations

The k, s, t, and h have harder pronouncations which result in different consonants. Harder pronouncations in writing are shown by adding two dots to the top right of the character (except in the case for "P", where a small circle is added instead). The following is an explanation of the transformation of the softer to harder pronouncations:

• K -> G, so か (ka) -> が (ga).
  • List of G: が (ga) ぎ (gi) ぐ (gu) げ (ge) ご (go)
• S -> Z, so さ (sa) -> ざ (za)
  • List of Z: ざ (za) じ (ji**) す (zu) せ (ze) そ (zo)
• T -> D, so た (ta) -> だ (da)
  • List of T: た (za) ち (chi**) づ (dzu**) て (te) と (to)
• H -> B, so は (ha) -> ば (ba)
  • List of B: ば (ba) び (bi) ぶ (bu) べ (be) ぼ (bo)
• H -> P, so は (ha) -> ぱ (pa)
  • List of P: ぱ (pa) ぴ (pi) ぷ (pu) ぺ (pe) ぽ (po)