What is in the Japanese alphabet?
Japanese has two phonetic scripts, hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ), each with 46 basic characters. Learn these two and you can read out the pronunciation of every Japanese word; kanji (Chinese characters) are a separate matter: they are not part of the alphabet but characters that carry meaning, and you learn them gradually, word by word.
Counting voiced, semi-voiced and contracted sounds, each script has 104 symbols: 46 basic characters, 25 voiced and semi-voiced characters and 33 contracted characters (yōon). The two scripts are read identically and differ only in shape and in where they are used. Katakana also has an extra set of combinations (such as ファ, ティ, ヴ) for writing foreign sounds. The full chart is below; the characters and readings come from GoMe's kana data.
Hiragana writes native Japanese words, particles (は, を, の…) and the changing endings of verbs and adjectives. Katakana writes loanwords (コーヒー is coffee, テレビ is TV), foreign personal and place names, onomatopoeia, or a word you want to stress. That is why learning hiragana first makes sense: every Japanese sentence needs it.
The 46 basic characters: hiragana, katakana and pronunciation
Each line below follows one pattern: the hiragana character, the katakana character, then the reading in Latin letters (romaji). Learning by row, five characters at a time, is easier than tackling all 46 at once.
A row (あ行): あ ア a · い イ i · う ウ u · え エ e · お オ o
K row (か行): か カ ka · き キ ki · く ク ku · け ケ ke · こ コ ko
S row (さ行): さ サ sa · し シ shi · す ス su · せ セ se · そ ソ so
T row (た行): た タ ta · ち チ chi · つ ツ tsu · て テ te · と ト to
N row (な行): な ナ na · に ニ ni · ぬ ヌ nu · ね ネ ne · の ノ no
H row (は行): は ハ ha · ひ ヒ hi · ふ フ fu · へ ヘ he · ほ ホ ho
M row (ま行): ま マ ma · み ミ mi · む ム mu · め メ me · も モ mo
Y row (や行): や ヤ ya · ゆ ユ yu · よ ヨ yo
R row (ら行): ら ラ ra · り リ ri · る ル ru · れ レ re · ろ ロ ro
W row (わ行) and ん: わ ワ wa · を ヲ o · ん ン n
Four readings do not follow the Latin spelling pattern: し is read shi, ち is read chi, つ is read tsu, and ふ is read close to fu (a sound between f and h). The character を has the same sound as お (o) and is used almost only as a particle. ん is the nasal n and never begins a word.
Voiced and semi-voiced sounds: adding ゛ and ゜
Add two small dots (゛, called dakuten) to a character in the K, S, T or H rows to get the voiced sounds of the G, Z, D and B rows. Add a small circle (゜, handakuten) to the H row to get the P row. Both marks work the same way for hiragana and katakana.
G row (が行): が ガ ga · ぎ ギ gi · ぐ グ gu · げ ゲ ge · ご ゴ go
Z row (ざ行): ざ ザ za · じ ジ ji · ず ズ zu · ぜ ゼ ze · ぞ ゾ zo
D row (だ行): だ ダ da · ぢ ヂ ji · づ ヅ zu · で デ de · ど ド do
B row (ば行): ば バ ba · び ビ bi · ぶ ブ bu · べ ベ be · ぼ ボ bo
P row (ぱ行, semi-voiced): ぱ パ pa · ぴ ピ pi · ぷ プ pu · ぺ ペ pe · ぽ ポ po
Two pairs share a sound: じ and ぢ are both read ji, and ず and づ are both read zu. In practice じ and ず are used almost everywhere; ぢ and づ appear only in a few cases such as はなぢ (nosebleed) or つづく (to continue).
Contracted sounds (yōon): a full-size kana plus a small ゃ ゅ ょ
When ゃ, ゅ, ょ (written smaller and half a line lower) follow a character ending in the い vowel, such as き, し or ち, the two merge into a single sound: き + ゃ is read kya, not ki-ya. There are 11 such rows, three characters each.
KY row: きゃ キャ kya · きゅ キュ kyu · きょ キョ kyo
SH row: しゃ シャ sha · しゅ シュ shu · しょ ショ sho
CH row: ちゃ チャ cha · ちゅ チュ chu · ちょ チョ cho
NY row: にゃ ニャ nya · にゅ ニュ nyu · にょ ニョ nyo
HY row: ひゃ ヒャ hya · ひゅ ヒュ hyu · ひょ ヒョ hyo
MY row: みゃ ミャ mya · みゅ ミュ myu · みょ ミョ myo
RY row: りゃ リャ rya · りゅ リュ ryu · りょ リョ ryo
GY row: ぎゃ ギャ gya · ぎゅ ギュ gyu · ぎょ ギョ gyo
J row: じゃ ジャ ja · じゅ ジュ ju · じょ ジョ jo
BY row: びゃ ビャ bya · びゅ ビュ byu · びょ ビョ byo
PY row: ぴゃ ピャ pya · ぴゅ ピュ pyu · ぴょ ピョ pyo
The size of the small character changes the word. びょういん (byōin) is a hospital, while びよういん (biyōin) is a hair salon. The rule is the same in katakana: ジャ is read ja, whereas ジヤ would be read ji-ya.
Small っ, long vowels and extended katakana
The small っ (geminate consonant)
The small っ (called sokuon) has no sound of its own; it signals a short pause and then a stronger pronunciation of the next consonant. きて (kite) means “come”, while きって (kitte, 切手) is a postage stamp. In katakana it is ッ, as in ベッド (bed) and カップ (cup).
Long vowels and the ー mark
A long vowel is a vowel held for twice as long. In hiragana you add a vowel character: ああ, いい, うう lengthen a, i, u; an え ending is lengthened with い (せんせい), and an お ending with う or お (とうきょう, おおきい). In katakana you simply add the dash ー: ビル (building) differs from ビール (beer), and コーヒー is coffee. おばさん (aunt) and おばあさん (grandmother) likewise differ only in the length of the a sound.
Extended katakana for foreign sounds
Katakana also has an extended set for writing foreign sounds that hiragana lacks: ファ (fa), フィ (fi), フェ (fe), フォ (fo), ティ (ti), ディ (di), ウィ (wi), ウェ (we), ウォ (wo), シェ (she), ジェ (je), チェ (che) and ヴ (vu, rarely used). You will meet them in words such as ファイル (file), パーティー (party) and フォーク (fork).
Look-alike characters and how to tell them apart
These are the pairs that trip up beginners most often. Don't try to memorise the descriptions; write each character a few times in the correct stroke order and then compare the pair side by side.
Look-alike katakana
シ (shi) and ツ (tsu): both have three short strokes and differ in direction. In ツ the strokes all run from top to bottom; in シ the last stroke sweeps up to the right. Quick memory aid: ツ points down, シ points up.
ソ (so) and ン (n): the same principle as the pair above. ソ has a long stroke running from the top down, while ン has a long stroke flicking upward from below. So the two that go down are ソ and ツ; the two that flick up are ン and シ.
ウ (u), ワ (wa) and フ (fu) in katakana: ウ has a short stroke on top, ワ lacks that stroke and has only two strokes, and フ has a single curved stroke. As for ノ (no) and メ (me), メ has an extra diagonal stroke crossing the ノ stroke.
Look-alike hiragana
ぬ (nu) and め (me): both have a crossing stroke. The difference is the tail: ぬ ends with a small loop, while め has no loop at the end.
ね (ne), れ (re) and わ (wa): three characters that share a vertical stroke on the left. ね has a loop at the tail, れ flicks its tail outward, and わ curls its tail inward.
る (ru) and ろ (ro): る has a small loop at the bottom, while ろ is open with no loop. This is the same feature that separates ぬ from め.
は (ha) and ほ (ho): the right side of ほ has one extra horizontal stroke compared with は.
How to learn the kana quickly
Learn hiragana first and katakana afterwards. In each session study just one row of five characters: look at the character, read it aloud, write it in the correct stroke order, then immediately read a real word that contains it. For the K row, read かさ (umbrella) and あき (autumn) rather than staring at isolated symbols.
After a few rows, review the older rows at widening intervals: the next day, a few days later, then at the weekend. This is spaced repetition (SRS), a good way to move characters into long-term memory. Once you know hiragana, learn katakana through familiar loanwords such as コーヒー, ケーキ and テレビ; many of them sound like English, so you can often guess the meaning if you know English.
How long it takes to learn both scripts varies a great deal from person to person and with the minutes you study each day, so this article does not promise a fixed number. A good sign that you are ready to move on to vocabulary and kanji is when you can read a simple line of hiragana without checking the chart.
Words in this article
Frequently asked questions
Should I learn hiragana or katakana first? Hiragana first, because it appears in every sentence. Katakana comes afterwards and usually takes less time because the sounds are already familiar.
Do I need to know the whole alphabet before learning vocabulary? Not necessarily. Once you know the basic hiragana you can start on simple words alongside katakana.
How many hiragana are there? There are 46 basic characters, or 104 symbols counting voiced, semi-voiced and contracted sounds. Katakana has a similar number plus an extended set for loanwords.
How do I review kana so I don't forget them? Read real words every day and review on a widening schedule. GoMe Nihongo has spaced-repetition review and handwriting practice, so a weak character comes back at just the right time.