Hiragana - ひらがな
Japanese includes three scripts. The very first script, which is to be learnt in the Japanese Language, is called Hiragana. It is the very basic script. Hiragana was made by modifying the Kanji letters. In the ancient times when Hiragana was made, many Japanese people did not accept it. The men used only Chinese characters in their writings. As the women were not allowed to receive the same level of education as that of men, the women started using hiragana first. Earlier for writing unofficial documents, only Hiragana was used. Whereas, forofficial documents both katakana and kanji were used. Hiragana is used for words, which do not have Kanji. It is also used as suffixes, prefixes and particles. As we cannot change kanji into different tenses, it is written in Hiragana at such times.
There are 46 basic Hiragana characters. It includes:
1. Main vowels, which are:
- ‘a’ pronounced as ‘aa’ as in ‘mark’.
- ‘i’ pronounced as ‘i’ as in ‘eat’.
- ‘u’ pronounced as ‘oo’ as in ‘soon’.
- ‘e’ pronounced as ‘e’ as in ‘tell’.
- ‘o’ pronounced as ‘o’ as in ‘more’.
Hiragana Chart
Hiragana Lessons - Index:
- Hiragana: Lesson 1 - 'あ' [a]
- Hiragana: Lesson 2 - 'い' [i]
- Hiragana: Lesson 3 - 'う' [u]
- Hiragana: Lesson 4 - 'え' [e]
- Hiragana: Lesson 5 - 'お' [o] -> Lesson 1 - 5 Review
- Hiragana: Lesson 6 - 'か' [ka] & 'が' [ga]
- Hiragana: Lesson 7 - 'き' [ki] & 'ぎ' [gi] (yo-on included)
- Hiragana: Lesson 8 - 'く' [ku] & 'ぐ' [gu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 9 - 'け' [ke] & 'げ' [ge]
- Hiragana: Lesson 10 - 'こ' [ko] & 'ご' [go] -> Lesson 6 - 10 Review
- Hiragana: Lesson 11 - 'さ' [sa] & 'ざ' [za]
- Hiragana: Lesson 12 - 'し' [shi] & 'じ' [ji] (yo-on included)
- Hiragana: Lesson 13 - 'す' [su] & 'ず' [zu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 14 - 'せ' [se] & 'ぜ' [ze]
- Hiragana: Lesson 15 - 'そ' [so] & 'ぞ' [zo] -> Lesson 11 -> 15
- Hiragana: Lesson 16 - 'た' [ta] & 'だ' [da]
- Hiragana: Lesson 17 - 'ち' [chi] & 'ぢ' [ji]
- Hiragana: Lesson 18 - 'つ' [tsu] & 'づ' [dzu;zu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 19 - 'て' [te] & 'で' [de]
- Hiragana: Lesson 20 - 'と' [to] & 'ど' [do]
- Hiragana: Lesson 21 - 'な' [na]
- Hiragana: Lesson 22 - 'に' [ni]
- Hiragana: Lesson 23 - ‘ぬ’ [nu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 24 - ‘ね’ [ne]
- Hiragana: Lesson 25 - ‘の’ [no]
- Hiragana: Lesson 26 - ‘は’ [ha], ば [ba] & ‘ぱ’ [pa]
- Hiragana: Lesson 27 - ‘ひ’ [hi], ‘び’ [bi] & ‘ぴ’ [pi]
- Hiragana: Lesson 28 - ‘ふ’[hu], ぶ [bu] & ぷ [pu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 29 - へ [he], べ [be] & ぺ [pe]
- Hiragana: Lesson 30 - ‘ほ’ [ho], ‘ぼ’ [bo] & ‘ぽ’ [po]
- Hiragana: Lesson 31 - ‘ま’ [ma]
- Hiragana: Lesson 32 - ‘み’ [mi]
- Hiragana: Lesson 33 - ‘む’ [mu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 34 - ‘め’ [me]
- Hiragana: Lesson 35 - ‘も’ [mo]
- Hiragana: Lesson 36 - ‘や’ [ya]
- Hiragana: Lesson 37 - ‘ゆ’ [yu]
- Hiragana: Lesson 38 - ‘よ’ [yo]
- Hiragana: Lesson 39 - ‘ら’ [ra]
- Hiragana: Lesson 40 - ‘り’ [ri]
- Hiragana: Lesson 41 - ‘る’ [ru]
- Hiragana: Lesson 42 - ‘れ’ [re]
- Hiragana: Lesson 43 - ‘ろ’ [ro]
- Hiragana: Lesson 44 - ‘わ’ [wa]
- Hiragana: Lesson 45 - ‘を’ [wo]
- Hiragana: Lesson 46 - ‘ん’ [n]
- Congratulations on Completing the Hiragana!