Hiragana is one of the basic characters of the Japanese language and is essential for writing and conversation. Its shapes are rounded, giving a soft and easy-to-read impression.
The types are divided into seven categories: voiceless sounds, voiced sounds, semi-voiced sounds, contracted sounds, syllabic nasal, double consonant, and long sound.
Voiceless sounds are the 45 basic characters such as “あ”, “い”, “う”, and form the foundation of words. Most Hiragana words in Japanese are made up of voiceless sounds.
Voiced sounds have a “ ゛” added to the top right of the character and include “が”, “ぎ”, “ぐ”, etc., totaling 20 characters.
Semi-voiced sounds have a “ ゜” added to the top right of the character and include “ぱ”, “ぴ”, “ぷ”, etc., totaling 5 characters.
Contracted sounds include a small “ゃ”, “ゅ”, “ょ” and include “きゃ”, “きゅ”, “きょ”, etc., totaling 36 characters.
Syllabic nasal is only “ん”. In Japanese, no word begins with “ん”, and it always appears from the second character onward in a word.
Double consonant is only “っ”. It appears between characters and is pronounced as a short, clipped sound between the preceding and following characters. No word begins or ends with “っ” in Japanese.
Long sound is only “ー” and lengthens the sound of the preceding character.
A single Hiragana character does not have meaning and functions as a symbol representing sound. For example, “あ” has no meaning and represents the sound “a”.
A word with meaning is formed only by combining multiple Hiragana characters. For example, combining “あ” and “か” forms the word “赤（あか）”, which represents a color.
As the first step in learning Japanese, it is very important to correctly read and write Hiragana.
Voiceless Sound
| あ | い | う | え | お |
| a | i | u | e | o |
| か | き | く | け | こ |
| ka | ki | ku | ke | ko |
| さ | し | す | せ | そ |
| sa | shi | su | se | so |
| た | ち | つ | て | と |
| ta | chi | tsu | te | to |
| な | に | ぬ | ね | の |
| na | ni | nu | ne | no |
| は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ |
| ha | hi | hu | he | ho |
| ま | み | む | め | も |
| ma | mi | mu | me | mo |
| や | ゆ | よ | ||
| ya | yu | yo | ||
| ら | り | る | れ | ろ |
| ra | ri | ru | re | ro |
| わ | を | |||
| wa | wo |
Voiced Sound
| が | ぎ | ぐ | げ | ご |
| ga | gi | gu | ge | go |
| ざ | じ | ず | ぜ | ぞ |
| za | ji | zu | ze | zo |
| だ | ぢ | づ | で | ど |
| da | ji | zu | de | do |
| ば | び | ぶ | べ | ぼ |
| ba | bi | bu | be | bo |
Semi-voiced Sound
| ぱ | ぴ | ぷ | ぺ | ぽ |
| pa | pi | pu | pe | po |
Contracted Sound
| きゃ | きゅ | きょ | ||
| kya | kyu | kyo | ||
| しゃ | しゅ | しょ | ||
| sha | shu | sho | ||
| ちゃ | ちゅ | ちょ | ||
| cha | chu | cho | ||
| にゃ | にゅ | にょ | ||
| nya | nyu | nyo | ||
| ひゃ | ひゅ | ひょ | ||
| hya | hyu | hyo | ||
| みゃ | みゅ | みょ | ||
| mya | myu | myo | ||
| りゃ | りゅ | りょ | ||
| rya | ryu | ryo | ||
| ぎゃ | ぎゅ | ぎょ | ||
| gya | gyu | gyo | ||
| じゃ | じゅ | じょ | ||
| ja | ju | jo | ||
| ぢゃ | ぢゅ | ぢょ | ||
| ja | ju | jo | ||
| びゃ | びゅ | びょ | ||
| bya | byu | byo | ||
| ぴゃ | ぴゅ | ぴょ | ||
| pya | pyu | pyo |
Syllabic Nasal
| ん | ||||
| n |
Double Consonant
| っ | ||||
| tsu |
Long Sound
| ー | ||||
| – |