Hiragana chart

Hiragana is the first thing to learn in Japanese: 46 basic characters that can spell every sound in the language. The full chart is below with romaji, followed by the voiced forms (dakuten) and the small-ya combinations (yōon).

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The basic 46 (gojūon)

Read down each column: the five vowels a, i, u, e, o run left to right, and each row adds a consonant. を is only ever used as the object particle, and は and へ are pronounced wa and e when they act as particles.

aiueo
— 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
n ん n — the only consonant that stands alone

Voiced sounds (dakuten and handakuten)

Two small strokes (゛) or a small circle (゜) in the top right change the consonant: k becomes g, s becomes z, t becomes d, h becomes b or p. These are not new characters to memorise — they are the same 46 shapes with a mark.

g が ga ぎ gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go
z 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

Combinations (yōon)

A small ya, yu or yo after an i-column character fuses into one syllable: き + small ya is kya, not ki-ya. Written full size it would be two syllables, so the size matters.

ky きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo
sh しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho
ch ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho
ny にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo
hy ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo
my みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo
ry りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo
gy ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo
j じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo
by びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo
py ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo

Practise it row by row

Reading a chart is not learning it — writing is. Each row below has a tracing sheet: trace it, then cover the chart and write the row from memory. Five characters a day finishes the whole script in about a week.

あ・い・う・え・お か・き・く・け・こ さ・し・す・せ・そ た・ち・つ・て・と な・に・ぬ・ね・の は・ひ・ふ・へ・ほ ま・み・む・め・も や・ゆ・よ ら・り・る・れ・ろ わ・を・ん が・ぎ・ぐ・げ・ご ざ・じ・ず・ぜ・ぞ だ・ぢ・づ・で・ど ば・び・ぶ・べ・ぼ… あ・い・う・え・お

What comes next

Once you can read this chart without hesitating, move on to the katakana chart and its worksheets, then start JLPT N5 kanji and N5 grammar. The full study plan lays out the whole route, and the JLPT page shows what each level covers.

This chart and every worksheet on Japaneseness are free and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 — print them, copy them, hand them out in class.