Japanese/Kana

See also: Japanese/Pronunciation.

There are two aspects to learning the Japanese characters. Recognising the shapes and learning to write them. These are further separated by the fact that the strokes that comprise a specific character have a certain order.

In addition to the base characters, there are special symbols to denote nuanced pronunciation, such as voiced and double consonants.

Stroke order

Hiragana: [ a ] [ ka ] [ sa ] [ ta ] [ na ] [ ha ] [ ma ] [ ya ] [ ra ] [ wa, wo, n ] [ ゐ and ゑ (ancient hiragana in disuse) ]
Katakana: [ a ] [ ka ] [ sa ] [ ta ] [ na ] [ ha ] [ ma ] [ ya ] [ ra ] [ wa, wo, n ] [ ヰ and ヱ (ancient katakana in disuse) ]

In the pages linked to from the tables below, you will find stroke order diagrams for each of the hiragana and katakana characters. The voiced and plosive variants of the same row/group are listed on the same page.

Hiragana

	a	i	u	e	o		a	i	u	e	o		a	i	u	e	o
Clear						Voiced						Plosive
	あ	い	う	え	お
k	か	き	く	け	こ	g	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご
s	さ	し	す	せ	そ	z	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ
t	た	ち	つ	て	と	d	だ	ぢ	づ	で	ど
n	な	に	ぬ	ね	の
h	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	b	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	p	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ
m	ま	み	む	め	も
y	や		ゆ		よ
r	ら	り	る	れ	ろ
w	わ				を
	ん

ゐゑ (ancient Hiragana in disuse)

Katakana

	a	i	u	e	o		a	i	u	e	o		a	i	u	e	o
Clear						Voiced						Plosive
	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ
k	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ	g	ガ	ギ	グ	ゲ	ゴ
s	サ	シ	ス	セ	ソ	z	ザ	ジ	ズ	ゼ	ゾ
t	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト	d	ダ	ヂ	ヅ	デ	ド
n	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ
h	ハ	ヒ	フ	へ	ホ	b	バ	ビ	ブ	ベ	ボ	p	パ	ピ	プ	ペ	ポ
m	マ	ミ	ム	メ	モ
y	ヤ		ユ		ヨ
r	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ
w	ワ				ヲ
	ン

ヰヱ (ancient Katakana in disuse)

Long vowels

A long vowel is written in hiragana with an extra "あ", "い" or "う" depending on the vowel. In most cases あ follows あ; い follows い or え and う follows う or お.

There are rare exceptions where an え vowel is extended by adding え. Much less rare is an お vowel extended by お. Some examples of this include:

"おねえさん", "おおい", and "おおきい".

In katakana, it's written with a chōonpu: "ー".

"データ" (e. data) Ja-deeta-data.ogg (help·info)

Voiced and plosive sounds

The turbid sound symbol, dakuten (濁点(だくてん)) which looks like two slash marks from the left to right ( ゛) just at the top-right-hand corner of a character indicate that the preceding consonant is voiced. This symbol is also known as tenten 点々(てんてん), meaning "two marks."

The half turbid sound symbol, handakuten (半濁点(はんだくてん)) which looks like a circle ( ゜) located to the top-right-hand corner of a syllabary indicates the preceding consonant is plosive.

Double consonants

The double consonant is written by adding a small "tsu" ("っ" or "ッ") in front of the doubled consonant syllable. This is called the sokuon (促音(そくおん)).

The sokuon cannot be at the beginning of a word. In hiragana, the sokuon can only appear before the "か", "さ", "た" and "ば" groups/rows.

Examples:

"どっち" (e. which) Ja-docchi-which.ogg (help·info)
"ポッキー" (e. Pocky snacks) Ja-Pocky.oga (help·info)

Yōon

In addition to those represented by the syllables in the kana, Japanese has sounds with a palatal or labio-velar semivowel between the consonant and the vowel. The sound is somewhat like that of the "j" between the "f" and the "o" in "fjord". This is written by appending smaller versions of "ya", "yu" and "yo" to the syllables from the "i" columns ("ki", "shi", "chi", "ni", "hi", "mi", "ri" and their variations). In this case, the two kana are not pronounced individually, but rather as one sound. These are called yōon (拗音(ようおん)).

Clear compounds			Voiced compounds			Plosive compounds
(ゃ ya ャ)	(ゅ yu ュ)	(ょ yo ョ)	(ゃ ya ャ)	(ゅ yu ュ)	(ょ yo ョ)	(ゃ ya ャ)	(ゅ yu ュ)	(ょ yo ョ)
きゃ kya キャ	きゅ kyu キュ	きょ kyo キョ	ぎゃ gya ギャ	ぎゅ gyu ギュ	ぎょ gyo ギョ
しゃ sha シャ	しゅ shu シュ	しょ sho ショ	じゃ ja ジャ	じゅ ju ジュ	じょ jo ジョ
ちゃ cha チャ	ちゅ chu チュ	ちょ cho チョ	ぢゃ ja ヂャ	ぢゅ ju ヂュ	ぢょ jo ヂョ
にゃ nya ニャ	にゅ nyu ニュ	にょ nyo ニョ
ひゃ hya ヒャ	ひゅ hyu ヒュ	ひょ hyo ヒョ	びゃ bya ビャ	びゅ byu ビュ	びょ byo ビョ	ぴゃ pya ピャ	ぴゅ pyu ピュ	ぴょ pyo ピョ
みゃ mya ミャ	みゅ myu ミュ	みょ myo ミョ
りゃ rya リャ	りゅ ryu リュ	りょ ryo リョ

Note: The grayed compound characters are rarely used.

Compounds with "yu" and "yo" are often followed by an "u", making it a long vowel.

Special yōon for transliteration

There are certain kinds of special yōon which primarily represent pronunciations imported from foreign languages. They commonly appear as parts of names of foreign people or foreign places. Although they were originally considered to be unauthorized, they are nowadays widely accepted even by conservative media such as newspapers. See the table below for commonly used ones among such compounds.

Compounds used for transliteration
(ぁ a ァ)	(ぃ i ィ)	(ぅ u ゥ)	(ぇ e ェ)	(ぉ o ォ)
	うぃ wi ウィ		うぇ we ウェ	うぉ wo ウォ
ゔぁ va ヴァ	ゔぃ vi ヴィ	ゔ vu ヴ	ゔぇ ve ヴェ	ゔぉ vo ヴォ
	てぃ ti ティ	とぅ tu トゥ
	でぃ di ディ	でゅ du デュ
ふぁ fa ファ	ふぃ fi フィ		ふぇ fe フェ	ふぉ fo フォ

Practice

Learning the kana takes some work and is best done by memorisation and drilling. Practice by writing up the table, speaking out the characters and drill yourself on the readings.

There are several online resources that can help you with these:

~~Henrik Theiling's Script Teacher~~

^{[dead link]} — A site that drills on many different scripts, including hiragana and katakana.

Hiragana Quiz at languageguide.org — A Kana Quiz that tests you with one small group of kana at a time.
~~Kanji Game~~

^{[dead link]}— An online multiple choice kana and kanji game.

Real Kana — A highly customisable page which drills the user on kana readings.
Kana Copybook (PDF) — Memorize the Kana through handwriting.

GNU/Linux users may also download the ~~Kanatest~~ ^{[dead link]} software, and Anki.