🇯🇵 JAPANESE
Hiragana – Study & Learn
Base 46 characters · あ to ん · Flashcards & reading practice
What is Hiragana?
Hiragana (平仮名) is the first of the three Japanese writing systems. It consists of 46 base characters, each representing a single syllable sound. Once you know these characters, you can read and write any Japanese sound. Every character maps to either a pure vowel or a consonant + vowel combination.
THE GOJŪON 五十音
The characters are arranged in a grid called the Gojūon ("50 sounds"). Each row shares a consonant; each column shares a vowel. Due to historical gaps, only 46 of the theoretical 50 positions are used.
WHERE YOU'LL SEE IT
Hiragana is used for grammatical particles (は, を, に, が, で…), verb and adjective endings, and words that don't have a kanji form. In children's books and beginner texts, furigana (small hiragana above kanji) guides pronunciation.
WHAT'S NOT COVERED HERE
This page covers the 46 base characters only. Dakuten (゛voiced marks: が, ざ, だ, ば) and yōon combinations (きゃ, しゅ…) are covered in the Part 2 exercise page.
THE FIVE VOWELS
Every other character is built on these five. Learn them first.
あa
いi
うu
えe
おo
The 46 Characters
Click any card to reveal its romaji reading. Use the buttons below to flip all cards at once.
Reading Practice
Each character appears in 2–3 simple sentences. Romaji is shown above each sentence in full. Highlighted characters are the one being practised in that entry.