Hiragana chart, with audio and a quiz
Hiragana spells every Japanese sound and is the first thing to learn. Tap any character to hear it, then practise below until each one is automatic.
104 characters in total. Katakana chart → · How kana works
Practise hiragana
0/46 basic learned · 0/104 in totalPick a few rows, then answer. A character counts as learned after 3 right in a row. Ten minutes a day gets you through the basic 46 in one to two weeks.
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Basic hiragana
The 46 core characters. Read each row left to right: a, i, u, e, o.
Voiced sounds
Two small marks (゛) turn k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b. A small circle (゜) turns h→p. ぢ and づ sound the same as じ and ず and are rare.
Combined sounds
A small ゃ ゅ ょ after an i-sound makes one beat: き + ゃ = きゃ (kya).
Look-alikes to watch
- ぬ has a loop at the end, め does not.
- わ, れ and ね share a left stroke: わ ends round, れ ends with a kick, ね ends in a loop.
- ほ has two crossbars on the right, は has one.
- る curls into a loop, ろ stays open.
- さ and ち face opposite ways; き has two crossbars.
The quiz uses these as wrong options on purpose, so you learn to tell them apart.