Getting comfortable with Hiragana
Last updated: 2026-07-11
Hiragana is one of Japan's two phonetic kana systems. Each character represents a sound, such as か (ka) or し (shi), rather than an idea by itself. Hiragana appears in grammatical endings, particles, furigana, and many native Japanese words. Learning it makes complete sentences much easier to approach.
Turn recognition into reading
A chart helps you look up unfamiliar kana, but the goal is to recognize them inside real words. Japanesefy's Hiragana challenge shows a word and asks you to build its complete reading in romaji. This connects three things at once: the shape you see, the sound you type, and the vocabulary you are learning.
When you see すし, try to read su-shi before checking the image or using a hint. Typing sushi then confirms whether you recognized both characters in sequence.
Basic Hiragana chart
The table follows the usual vowel order: a, i, u, e, o. Empty cells represent sounds that do not have a standard basic kana. The spellings use common Hepburn romanization, which is also the best reference for Japanesefy's current answers.
| Row | a | i | u | e | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowels | あ (a) | い (i) | う (u) | え (e) | お (o) |
| K | か (ka) | き (ki) | く (ku) | け (ke) | こ (ko) |
| S | さ (sa) | し (shi) | す (su) | せ (se) | そ (so) |
| T | た (ta) | ち (chi) | つ (tsu) | て (te) | と (to) |
| N | な (na) | に (ni) | ぬ (nu) | ね (ne) | の (no) |
| H | は (ha) | ひ (hi) | ふ (fu) | へ (he) | ほ (ho) |
| M | ま (ma) | み (mi) | む (mu) | め (me) | も (mo) |
| Y | や (ya) | — | ゆ (yu) | — | よ (yo) |
| R | ら (ra) | り (ri) | る (ru) | れ (re) | ろ (ro) |
| W | わ (wa) | — | — | — | を (wo/o) |
| Final N | ん (n) | — | — | — | — |
Pay special attention to し (shi), ち (chi), つ (tsu), and ふ (fu): their common romanizations do not follow a simple consonant-plus-vowel pattern. The particle を is written wo in charts but is normally pronounced o.
Modified and combined sounds
Two small marks create additional sounds. Dakuten (゛) voices a consonant, while handakuten (゜) changes the H row into P sounds.
| Family | Characters and readings |
|---|---|
| G | が (ga), ぎ (gi), ぐ (gu), げ (ge), ご (go) |
| Z/J | ざ (za), じ (ji), ず (zu), ぜ (ze), ぞ (zo) |
| D | だ (da), ぢ (ji), づ (zu), で (de), ど (do) |
| B | ば (ba), び (bi), ぶ (bu), べ (be), ぼ (bo) |
| P | ぱ (pa), ぴ (pi), ぷ (pu), ぺ (pe), ぽ (po) |
Small ゃ, ゅ, and ょ combine with an I-column kana: きゃ (kya), しゅ (shu), and ちょ (cho). A small っ doubles the following consonant, so きって is kitte, not kite. These small characters occupy their own visible positions in Japanese, but they change how the whole word is romanized.
Use the chart during a challenge
- Look across the entire word before entering an answer.
- Break it into kana sounds, paying attention to small characters and marks.
- Enter the complete romaji reading from left to right.
- Use a hint only after making a genuine reading attempt.
- After solving it, read the Japanese word aloud and connect it to its meaning.
The chart is a reference, not something you must memorize before playing. Each daily challenge should make a few characters faster to recognize. Repeated words and sounds gradually turn deliberate decoding into fluent reading.