Hiragana

About

Hiragana is the very original japanese writing system. Know that:

• a single character may represent from 1 to 3 syllables, mostly 2 (eg. ぬ = "nu")
• with the exception of ん - "n" each is pronounced with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) at the end
• the transcription to our alphabet is called romaji (からて -> karate)

Pronunciation

Especially at the beginning, you will have to rely on romaji. On these pages I use the Hepburn romanization style, and for this reason I provide the pronunciation rules for romaji here.

Vowels

Always clear, short, and consistent (not like English where vowels shift):

• a = “ah” (father)
• i = “ee” (machine)
• u = “oo” (food, but shorter / less rounded, lips relaxed)
• e = “eh” (met, but crisper)
• o = “oh” (more pure than English “go”)

Long vowels: written as “aa, ii, uu, ee, oo/ō” → just hold the sound about twice as long. (e.g. Tōkyō = To-o-kyo-o)

Consonants

• r = light tap, between English r and l (like Spanish r in pero).
• f = soft, almost h with lips rounded (not as strong as English f).
• g = “g” in go
• ch = “ch” in cheese
• sh = “sh” in she
• tsu = like tsu in tsunami
• j = like j in jam
• h = like h in have
• y = like y in yes

Pronunciation usually alternates a consonant with a vowel (except for the character ん "n"). However, there are words where two consonants are pronounced in a row, for example in romaji: "atta" (met) - in hiragana this doubling is expressed with っ → あった (note the small vs. big "tsu" → っつ, on the right is the normal one). Therefore, in romaji it is not written as "atsuta" but the way it is pronounced → "atta".

Fun fact: japanese don`t natively have the syllable "L" => they usually pronounce such foreign words using "R" instead, eg. Lucy → "Rushi" (foreign words are usually writen in Katakana).