ひらがな・カタカナ (hiragana, katakana)
Japanese has no single alphabet. It mixes two syllabaries of 46 basic kana each, hiragana and katakana, with Chinese characters (kanji). Each kana stands for one syllable, such as か ka.
Tap any kana to hear it. Practice mode hides names and sounds until you tap a card.
The 46 basic hiragana. Each one is a syllable: a vowel alone, or a consonant plus a vowel. ん (n) is the only kana that is a consonant on its own.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| k | |||||
| s | |||||
| t | |||||
| n | |||||
| h | |||||
| m | |||||
| y | |||||
| r | |||||
| w | |||||
| n |
The 46 basic katakana, used mainly for foreign loanwords and names. They make exactly the same sounds as the hiragana above.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| k | |||||
| s | |||||
| t | |||||
| n | |||||
| h | |||||
| m | |||||
| y | |||||
| r | |||||
| w | |||||
| n |
Two small marks change the consonant: ゛ (dakuten) turns k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b, and ゜ (handakuten) turns h→p. ぢ and づ sound like じ and ず and are rarely used.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| g | |||||
| z | |||||
| d | |||||
| b | |||||
| p |
Two small marks change the consonant: ゛ (dakuten) turns k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b, and ゜ (handakuten) turns h→p. ヂ and ヅ sound like ジ and ズ and are rarely used.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| g | |||||
| z | |||||
| d | |||||
| b | |||||
| p |
A kana from the i column plus a small ゃ ゅ ょ makes one syllable: き + ゃ = きゃ (kya). The small kana is not read as a separate syllable.
| ya | yu | yo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| k | |||
| sh | |||
| ch | |||
| n | |||
| h | |||
| m | |||
| r | |||
| g | |||
| j | |||
| b | |||
| p |
A kana from the i column plus a small ャ ュ ョ makes one syllable: キ + ャ = キャ (kya). The small kana is not read as a separate syllable.
| ya | yu | yo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| k | |||
| sh | |||
| ch | |||
| n | |||
| h | |||
| m | |||
| r | |||
| g | |||
| j | |||
| b | |||
| p |
Loanwords use extra combinations with a small vowel kana to write sounds that old Japanese did not have.
| Kana | Romaji | Example | Romaji | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ファ | fa | ファン | fan | fan (supporter) | |
| フィ | fi | フィルム | firumu | film | |
| フェ | fe | カフェ | kafe | café | |
| フォ | fo | フォーク | fōku | fork | |
| ティ | ti | パーティー | pātī | party | |
| ディ | di | ディナー | dinā | dinner | |
| シェ | she | シェフ | shefu | chef | |
| ジェ | je | ジェット | jetto | jet | |
| チェ | che | チェック | chekku | check | |
| ウェ | we | ウェブ | webu | web |
| Sign | Name | What it does | Example | Romaji | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| っ ッ | sokuon (small tsu) | doubles the next consonant, with a short pause | きって | kitte | postage stamp | |
| ー | chōonpu | makes the vowel before it long (mostly in katakana) | コーヒー | kōhī | coffee | |
| ゛ | dakuten | voices the consonant: か ka → が ga | かぎ | kagi | key | |
| ゜ | handakuten | turns h into p: は ha → ぱ pa | パン | pan | bread |
Common words written in kana. Many native words are normally written in kanji, shown in the last column; katakana words have no kanji.
| Word | Romaji | Meaning | Usually written | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| さくら | sakura | cherry blossom | 桜 | |
| ねこ | neko | cat | 猫 | |
| いぬ | inu | dog | 犬 | |
| みず | mizu | water | 水 | |
| やま | yama | mountain | 山 | |
| ともだち | tomodachi | friend | 友達 | |
| がっこう | gakkō | school | 学校 | |
| ありがとう | arigatō | thank you | — | |
| テレビ | terebi | television | — | |
| カメラ | kamera | camera | — | |
| タクシー | takushī | taxi | — |
Kanji write the stems of most nouns, verbs and adjectives. Hiragana write grammatical endings, particles and words without a common kanji. Katakana write foreign loanwords, foreign names, sound effects and emphasis. All three appear together: 私はコーヒーを飲みます (watashi wa kōhī o nomimasu, I drink coffee).
A small っ (katakana ッ) is not read as tsu. It doubles the next consonant with a short pause, and romaji doubles the letter: きって kitte (stamp) versus きて kite (come). Before ch it is written t: まっちゃ matcha.
Vowel length changes meaning. In hiragana a long vowel is written with an extra vowel kana: おかあさん okāsan (mother); a long o is usually written おう, as in がっこう gakkō (school). Katakana use the bar ー: コーヒー kōhī (coffee). Hepburn romaji marks long vowels with a macron: ā, ō.
Three kana are read differently when they are grammatical particles: は (ha) is read wa, へ (he) is read e, and を (wo) is read o. を is used only as the object particle.
ん is always a full syllable beat. Before b, m and p it sounds like m: しんぶん shinbun (newspaper) is said “shimbun”. Before a vowel or y, romaji writes n’ to avoid confusion: きんえん kin’en (no smoking).
Japanese is written without spaces. The switch between kanji and kana helps show where words begin. Text runs left to right in horizontal lines, or top to bottom in columns read from right to left, as in many books and newspapers.
Japanese in Latin letters is called romaji. This page uses Hepburn romanization (shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji), the system used in most dictionaries, textbooks, passports and signs. Romaji is a learning aid; Japanese people do not normally write in it.
Audio is synthetic speech generated with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (Chirp 3: HD voices). Letter inventory checked against Unicode CLDR.