Hiragana and Katakana

Table of Contents

Sound Guide

Hiragana and Katakana are arranged in rows of 5 by the 5 vowel sounds. These vowel sounds are

あ (ah)
い (‘e’)
う (ooh)
え (eh)
お (oh)

Sound Notes

Consonant sounds are mostly as expected, except R and F.
R is halfway between L and D. (see below)
F is the F sound without biting (lightly biting) your lip.
を when used as a particle (basically always) is pronounced お (oh).

About Learning

Learning a writing system is about practice. Your first goal is to familiarize yourself and get used to reading them. You should start with hiragana. Learning the writing systems requires a lot of practice, so there are some links to worksheets and resources at the bottom of this page.

Rules for Writing

When learning Japanese writing keep in mind the following rules, or you will suffer later.

Stroke order is important. Stroke order helps you write them naturally (faster) and correctly. Experienced (or Japanese) people will be able to tell if you mess up the stroke order.
Stroke direction is important too. Strokes should start at the number listed in diagrams.
“Hooks” where the pencil/pen jerks away from the end of a character fast, are a little important.

Tips

“Voiced” sounds are just unvoiced + “ ex:　か(ka) and が(ga)　た(ta) and だ(da).
Small ゆ, や, and よ connect to い sounds to make a slightly new sound.
Position your tongue halfway between L and D to make the Japanese R sound. Try it with La and Da to make the Japanese Ra sound. Don’t force an R sound into it. It’s ok if it sounds like an L.
The katakana ツ(tsu)・シ(shi)・ソ(so)・ン(n) are notoriously hard. I made a page for them here.
You may wise to use an app like Anki

Resources

NHK – Japanese government site. Hiragana + Katakana, audio files included.
Worksheet (from Meguro Language center, external link) Contains long vowel + katakana information as well.

Please finish learning to read Hiragana before starting the N5 material.