Hiragana - Katakana

                                            ひらがな  -   カタカナ





Here's the list of hiragana and katakana letters. Reminder : Hiragana is used to write Japanese words. Katakana is used to write foreign words and names. 

NB :  In my list, Hiragana are on the left, and katakana are on the right, after the / 




A :  あ / ア 

I :  い / イ 

U : う / ウ

E :  え / エ

O :  お / オ

KA :  か / カ

KI :  き / キ

KU : く / ク

KE : け / ケ

KO :  こ / コ

SA : さ / サ

SHI : し / シ

SU :  す / ス

SE :  せ / セ

SO :  そ / ソ

TA :   た  / タ

CHI :  ち / チ

TSU :  つ / ツ

TE :  て / テ

TO :  と / ト

MA :  ま / マ

MI :  み / ミ

MU :  む / ム

ME :  め / メ

MO : も / モ

NA :  な / ナ

NI :  に / ニ

NU : ぬ / ヌ

NE :  ね / ネ 

NO :  の / ノ

HA :  は / ハ 

HI :  ひ / ヒ

HU :  ふ / フ

HE :  へ / ヘ

HO :  ほ / ホ

RA :  ら / ラ

RI :  り / リ

RU :  る / ル

RE :  れ / レ

RO :  ろ / ロ

YA :  や / ヤ

YU :  ゆ  / ユ

YO :  よ / ヨ

WA :  わ / ワ

WO :  を / ヲ

N :  ん /  ン 

 

 

Writting rules:

 

The little sign "  is used to turn a "hard" consonnant into a soft one (the soft consonnant of K is G, of T is D...) also known as "voicing".

 Exemple: て (te) becomes で (de)

 こ(Ko) becomes ご (Go)

For S, the soft consonnant is Z. exemple:  Sa (さ)  becomes Za (ざ )  

For "Sh" it's J.  Shi == Ji  (し == じ ) .

For H, it is B =  は(ha) == ば (ba)

 

° this little circle is here to indicate a " P" example:  ば (ba) = ぱ (pa)

So you just add the sign " to make a hard consonnant (K, S, T) into a soft one (G, Z, D...)  and ° is to turn B into P.

To make a double consonnant, you have to add the little sign  っ in front of the hiragana that contains the doubling sound.  Exemple:  Kippu, there is two P, so we write:  きっぷ   (き : ki / っ : doubling / ぷ : pu ) the っ is before the "pu" so that syllab (pu) is the one that should be doubled:  pu becomes ppu.)

For consonnants N and M , the doubling is used with ん

Exemple: Onna :  おんな  ( お : o / ん : doubling / な : na ) = onna

- the letter U  ( う )keeps its original role EXCEPT when indicating a long vowel (only for U and O)

Exemple: Sô (there is a little accent on the O to indicate it is a long vowel, you can also write "Sou") =  そう  ( そ: So / う : indicator of long vowel ) 

Sô then is pronounced like Sooo  (with O that lasts long for a little). 

To make a long "i" , you just have to repeat the i letter. Example:  iie  = いいえ   (it is the same for other vowels except for O and U that are elongated with the sign う  like I said above.

In katakana, to make a long vowel, you just have to add a stroke/horizontal line ー after the long vowel.   Exemple :  Kôhî = コーヒー ( コ : ko / ヒ : hi / and the two lines are there to indicate that Ko and Hi are pronounced a little long. )

にゃ= nya (ni+ya)  にゅ = nyu (ni+yu)  にょ = nyo (ni+yo)  きゃ = kya (ki+ya) ... EXCEPT FOR  CH, SH et J. 

Exemple: ちょ is written chyo (chi+yo) but is pronounced CHO. じょ is written jyo but is pronounced JO.  しょ is written shyo but is pronounced like SHO. (The same happens for the following syllabs:  Sha, Cha, Ja, Shu, Chu, Ju ,  everytime there is the letters J, CH et SH. ) 

 

In Japanese, if you want to quote a phrase or word, you use these 『     』

Example: "Japan" =   『 日本 』

So now, if you want to learn hiragana and katakana and their writting rules, you can ! 

 

 (if you wanna know more bout Japanese writting, please read my post about Japanese Language, in the "Writting" section of it.