Learning Hiragana, A Short Introduction

Hiragana, the Japanese syllabus.

Make sure you learn Hiragana before attempting to go any further in your Japanese study. Hiragana is the basic building block that the rest of the journey to fluent Japanese will build upon! It is akin to learning the alphabets in the English language. Work hard and memorise them before moving on.

Basic Hiragana

Basic hiragana is made up of 46 characters with different sounds, pretty much like the alphabets in the English language.

I found that it is easier to break the Hiragana chart into smaller bits while learning, focusing on each of the small bits each day. Here's how I memorised it ;

Grab a generic hiragana chart by doing a quick search online.

Start from the 1st row with the basic vowels (a), (i), (u), (e), (o)

Work your way down the rows. I started out by memorising just 3 rows per day, and it was done in a week!

Focus on learning the correct pronunciation.

The pronunciation of Hiragana is important as Hiragana will be used to form words in the Japanese language. Therefore, master the correct pronunciation to avoid sounding like a gaijin (foreigner)!

To determine the pronunciation of the Hiragana, refer back to the Hiragana chart. Combine the alphabet on the left column (k, g, s, t, etc) with that on the top row (a, i, u, e, o). However, the pronunciation for certain characters do not follow the regular match up. For example, the pronunciation of 'CHI' (rather than 'TI'). These special characters usually have their pronunciation indicated on the Hiragana chart.

Alternatively, you can use Google Translate, or search the interweb to listen to the native pronunciation!

Additional Hiragana

Combinations

Additional Hiragana builds on the basic characters we have memorised previously. By adding two lines or a circle, we get more characters!

The g- characters involve adding two lines at the top right corner of the k- characters.

The z- characters involve adding two lines at the top right corner of the s- characters.

The d- characters involve adding two lines at the top right corner of the t- characters.

The b- characters involve adding two lines at the top right corner of the h- characters.

The p- characters involve adding a circle at the top right corner of the h- characters.

More combinations

The (i) characters can be combined with the (ya), (yu), (yo) characters for more combinations. The three characters are usually added to the bottom right of the (i) character.

And that's all for Hiragana! at least for now!