Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 10

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 this lesson you are going to learn how to read and write "わ", "を" and "ん".

Brush Stroke:
Sound:	wa
Mnemonic:	The second part drawn looks like a washing motion or the "wax on, wax off" motion from The Karate Kid.
Example:	わし 鷲(washi) eagle わに 鰐(wani) alligator わるい 悪い(warui) bad

Brush Stroke:
Sound:	Similar to o. When spoken, the mouth is shaped as if saying 'w', and a trace of the 'w' appears in the sound so in English it is often written 'wo'. The 'w' is particularly noticeable when the preceding word ends in 'n', for example in パンを食べる meaning to eat bread.
Mnemonic:
Example:	を (wo or o) a particle introducing an object すさのを - Susano(w)o, an ancient god of the storms and seas

Note: The "を" syllable is used only for the object marker particle. No other word is written with "を".

Brush Stroke:
Sound:	Can sound like an n, ng, or m sound, depending on what consonant follows it (for example, if a "p" follows, this sound will be an "m"). Because there is little differentiation between these sounds in Japanese, using n for all examples will still be clearly understood.
Mnemonic:	N - It looks like a badly drawn n from the Roman alphabet. The stem is too long and the tail extends too far.
Example:	おんな 女(onna) woman さんご 珊瑚(sango) coral さんそ 酸素(sanso) oxygen

Note: No word starts with "ん".