Reading Japanese

Hiragana

One row of the syllabary per lesson. Meet a character, find it, read it, then spell the words it just made possible.

30 of 46

• L1 あ い う え お A-row · the five vowels
• L2 か き く け こ Ka-row
• L3 さ し す せ そ Sa-row · first exception, し
• L4 た ち つ て と Ta-row · ち and つ
• L5 な に ぬ ね の Na-row · the lookalikes
• L6 は ひ ふ へ ほ Ha-row · last exception, and は as a particle

Reference

The hiragana chart — all forty-six, with the learned rows inked in and the rest waiting. Every cell plays, including the ones you have not reached.

How the lessons work

Each lesson is one page you scroll, a screen at a time. A character and the drill that asks for it are never on screen together. Nothing is stored: reload and every drill starts fresh.

Pronunciation comes from Tofugu’s hiragana guide, which is also where the mnemonics and their illustrations come from. Words are spoken by a synthesised voice, since no free set of native word recordings exists at this level.