Hiragana Chart
Hiragana is the first of the two Japanese syllabaries and the foundation for reading and writing. Each character stands for one syllable. With the 46 base characters, the voiced sounds and the combined sounds you can spell out any Japanese word phonetically.
Tap a character for stroke order, audio and an example word.
Base characters (gojuon)
The 46 base characters, ordered by vowel and consonant.
Voiced sounds (dakuten and handakuten)
Two strokes (゛) or a small circle (゜) change the consonant.
Combined sounds (yoon)
A small や・ゆ・よ merges with the preceding character into a single sound.
How to learn Hiragana fastest
- Learn in rows, not all at once. One consonant row per day is plenty.
- Write each character by hand a few times, it cements the shape.
- Use daily review so what you learn does not fade away again.
- Read simple words as soon as you know a row, not just isolated characters.
Up next
Learn katakana
Sakuraflow
Practise hiragana interactively