Japanese Alphabet: Hiragana, Katakana And Kanji Explained

For anyone learning Japanese, you won’t get far without learning the “alphabet”.

In this guide, I’ll explain the Japanese “alphabet” (quotes intended) for you by breaking down the 3 writing systems and how they work.

As you’ll discover, writing Japanese is actually far easier than it looks.

Does Japanese have an alphabet?

Let me just clarify something:

Japanese doesn’t actually have an alphabet. Rather, it has 3 very different writing systems that serve different functions.

These 3 writing systems are called hiragana, katakana and kanji.

While there is technically a 4th system called romaji, it’s not really an official writing system for Japanese (think of it as writing Japanese using English letters). You may find romaji helpful in the beginning while learning the basics, but your goal as a Japanese student is to eventually not need it. 😊

As a new learner, you’ll want to focus your efforts firstly on hiragana, then katakana and finally kanji in this order.

Hiragana, katakana and kanji in a nutshell

Both hiragana and katakana (collectively called kana) represent the same sounds and have a one-to-one correspondence, but they’re used in different contexts and are written differently.

• Hiragana: Cursive and rounded in appearance. It’s usually the first writing system taught to beginners because it’s used in nearly all Japanese sentences. Hiragana’s used for grammatical elements such as particles, verb endings, and some native Japanese words. Additionally, it’s used for words that don’t have kanji or if the author prefers to use hiragana for stylistic or readability reasons.
• Katakana: More angular appearance. It’s used primarily to represent foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeic sounds (mimetic expressions), and sometimes just for emphasis (a bit like italics in English). Katakana’s also preferred for many scientific names.

How many letters are there?

Both hiragana and katakana have 46 basic syllabic characters, with some compound characters. Kanji is a-whole-nother kettle of fish. 😂

• Kanji: Kanji are logographic characters borrowed from Chinese. Unlike hiragana and katakana, which are syllabic scripts (each character represents a syllable much like Korean), each kanji character represents a word or concept.

Kanji’s a challenge for numerous reasons, the main one being that there are literally thousands of them to memorize. It can take years to learn just the most common of them.

The writing systems of Japanese

I’ll go into the 3 systems in more detail below, and provide you with charts of hiragana and katakana.

For obvious reasons, I can’t provide a chart of kanji. You’ll need a separate resource for that.

I recommend this one: Kanji Dictionary for Foreigners Learning Japanese - Akimoto, Miharu & Shiga, Satomi & Natsume-sha (it covers the most important 2,500 kanji).

Hiragana

Here are the 46 basic hiragana characters along with the romaji for pronunciation help.

The first 5 are the vowels.

HIRAGANA	ROMAJI	AUDIO
あ	a
い	i
う	u
え	e
お	o
か	ka
き	ki
く	ku
け	ke
こ	ko
が	ga
ぎ	gi
ぐ	gu
げ	ge
ご	go
さ	sa
し	shi
す	su
せ	se
そ	so
ざ	za
じ	ji
ず	zu
ぜ	ze
ぞ	zo
た	ta
ち	chi
つ	tsu
て	te
と	to
だ	da
ぢ	ji
づ	zu
で	de
ど	do
な	na
に	ni
ぬ	nu
ね	ne
の	no
は	ha
ひ	hi
ふ	fu
へ	he
ほ	ho
ば	ba
び	bi
ぶ	bu
べ	be
ぼ	bo
ぱ	pa
ぴ	pi
ぷ	pu
ぺ	pe
ぽ	po
ま	ma
み	mi
む	mu
め	me
も	mo
や	ya
ゆ	yu
よ	yo
ら	ra
り	ri
る	ru
れ	re
ろ	ro
わ	wa
を	wo
ん	n/m

Here’s an image of the basic hiragana chart:

Katakana

These are the 46 basic katakana characters along with the romaji. As you can see, the pronunciation and number are identical to the chart above.

The first 5 are the vowels.

KATAKANA	ROMAJI	AUDIO
ア	a
イ	i
ウ	u
エ	e
オ	o
カ	ka
キ	ki
ク	ku
ケ	ke
コ	ko
ガ	ga
ギ	gi
グ	gu
ゲ	ge
ゴ	go
サ	sa
シ	shi
ス	su
セ	se
ソ	so
ザ	za
ジ	ji
ズ	zu
ゼ	ze
ゾ	zo
タ	ta
チ	chi
ツ	tsu
テ	te
ト	to
ダ	da
ヂ	ji
ヅ	zu
デ	de
ド	do
ナ	na
ニ	ni
ヌ	nu
ネ	ne
ノ	no
ハ	ha
ヒ	hi
フ	fu
ヘ	he
ホ	ho
バ	ba
ビ	bi
ブ	bu
ベ	be
ボ	bo
パ	pa
ピ	pi
プ	pu
ペ	pe
ポ	po
マ	ma
ミ	mi
ム	mu
メ	me
モ	mo
ヤ	ya
ユ	yu
ヨ	yo
ラ	ra
リ	ri
ル	ru
レ	re
ロ	ro
ワ	wa
ヲ	wo
ン	n/m

Here’s an image of the basic katakana chart:

Combinations

In both hiragana and katakana, there are combinations that must learn too. Not overly complicated, don’t worry!

Here’s a brief summary of what they are (including their names):

濁音 (Dakuon)

Dakuon, or voiced sounds, are a variation of certain characters in both hiragana and katakana. These are represented by adding two small lines, called dakuten, in the top right corner of the character.

For instance, hiragana “か” (ka) becomes “が” (ga), and katakana “カ” (ka) becomes “ガ” (ga). Similarly, hiragana “さ” (sa) becomes “ざ” (za), and katakana “サ” (sa) becomes “ザ” (za).

半濁音 (Handakuon)

Handakuon, or semi-voiced sounds, are a variation of certain characters specifically in the “h” row of both hiragana and katakana. These are represented by adding a small circle, called handakuten, in the top right corner of the character.

For example, hiragana “は” (ha) becomes “ぱ” (pa), and katakana “ハ” (ha) becomes “パ” (pa). Similarly, hiragana “ひ” (hi) becomes “ぴ” (pi), and katakana “ヒ” (hi) becomes “ピ” (pi).

拗音 (Youon)

Youon, or palatalized sounds, are represented in writing by a small “ya”, “yu”, or “yo” following a character ending in “i” in both hiragana and katakana.

This results in a compound syllable. For instance, hiragana “き” (ki) + small “ゃ” (ya) = “きゃ” (kya), and katakana “キ” (ki) + small “ャ” (ya) = “キャ” (kya).

促音 (Sokuon)

Sokuon, or geminate consonants, are represented in writing by a small “tsu” character preceding another character in both hiragana and katakana.

This results in a pause before the next sound, effectively doubling the consonant that follows. For instance, hiragana “さ” (sa) with a small “tsu” before it would be “っさ” and pronounced as “ssa”. In katakana, “サ” (sa) with a small “ツ” before it would be “ッサ” and also pronounced as “ssa”.

長音 (Chouon)

Chouon, or long vowels, are represented differently in hiragana and katakana.

In hiragana, the character for the same vowel sound is usually added. For example, “お” (o) becomes “おお” or “おう” (oo), both pronounced as a longer “o” sound.

In katakana, a horizontal dash is added after the character to denote the long vowel. For instance, “オ” (o) becomes “オー” for a long “o” sound.

Hiragana combinations

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

Katakana combinations

KATAKANA	ROMAJI	AUDIO
キャ	kya
キュ	kyu
キョ	kyo
ギャ	gya
ギュ	gyu
ギョ	gyo
シャ	sha
シュ	shu
ショ	sho
ジャ	ja
ジュ	ju
ジョ	jo
チャ	cha
チュ	chu
チョ	cho
ニャ	nya
ニュ	nyu
ニョ	nyo
ヒャ	hya
ヒュ	hyu
ヒョ	hyo
ビャ	bya
ビュ	byu
ビョ	byo
ピャ	pya
ピュ	pyu
ピョ	pyo
ミャ	mya
ミュ	myu
ミョ	myo
リャ	rya
リュ	ryu
リョ	ryo

Kanji

As I mentioned above, giving you a chart of every kanji is way beyond the scope of this guide. There are literally thousands of them.

Here are two points that you should know:

1. Most Japanese people don’t know every single Kanji so don’t beat yourself up for not knowing them all.
2. Out of the many thousands of characters, you only need to learn a fraction of them to have a functional, proficient grasp of kanji.
3. Kanji are something you can acquire over time. There is no urgent need to become a kanji master so take your time with it.

I mentioned a great book above that’ll help you learn 2,500 kanji (more than enough!). There are also some excellent online resources which you can see a list of here.

The Japanese “alphabet” is easy

Okay, so there’s no such thing as the Japanese “alphabet”.

Only 3 systems of written communication that each play an important role. Two of them are syllabic and easy to learn, much like Korean, while the other is logographic and will take years to acquire (but there’s no urgent need to master it).

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