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.

• 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
• L7 ま み む め も Ma-row · め joins the lookalikes
• L8 や ゆ よ Ya-row · three characters, not five
• L9 ら り る れ ろ Ra-row · the sound English does not have
• L10 わ を ん Wa-row · を as grammar, ん as a beat
• L11 が ぎ ぐ げ ご Dakuten I · K becomes G, S becomes Z
• L12 だ ぢ づ で ど Dakuten II · T becomes D, H becomes B
• L13 ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ っ Handakuten, and the held beat
• L14 きゃ しゃ ちゃ Two characters, one beat
• L15 ぎゃ じゃ びゃ ぴゃ The last twelve, and long vowels
• L16 ぜんぶ Reading · all 104, and five sentences

That is the whole of hiragana — 104 sounds from 46 shapes, two marks and one combining rule. Katakana next: the same sounds again, in a second set of shapes.

Reference

The hiragana chart — all forty-six, laid out as a grid. Every cell plays, including the ones no lesson has 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.