What is kana?
Kana (仮名) is the Japanese syllabary: each character stands for a single sound, which makes it the closest thing Japanese has to an alphabet. Kana come in two scripts — hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ). They cover exactly the same sounds and differ only in how they look: hiragana is used for everyday writing, katakana for loanwords and emphasis.
The name means “fifty sounds”, because the basic kana are traditionally laid out in 10 rows × 5 columns — 50 slots. A few of those slots have no kana, so what you actually need is 46 basic kana, 25 voiced and semi-voiced sounds, and 33 contracted sounds — 104 sounds in all.
The single most effective way to learn kana is this: see a kana → type its romaji on the keyboard. Every keystroke reinforces the link between shape and sound, which beats copying them out or reciting them from memory by a wide margin.
Basic kana (清音) — 46
The foundation of Japanese pronunciation. Every row has a fixed consonant (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w) and every column a fixed vowel (a, i, u, e, o). Learn that row–column grid and you have learned the whole basic set. The last one, ん is the only kana that ends in a consonant.
Voiced & semi-voiced sounds (濁音・半濁音) — 25
Add ゛ to the top right of a basic kana and it becomes voiced: the consonant shifts to its voiced counterpart (k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b). The semi-voiced mark ゜ appears only in the h-row, turning h into p. Note that じ and ぢ are both read ji, and ず and づ are both read zu.
Contracted sounds (拗音) — 33
Add a small ゃ (ya), ゅ (yu) or ょ (yo) after a い段(i-dan, the “i” row) kana and the two merge into one new syllable. For example き (ki) + ゃ (ya) → きゃ (kya) is pronounced as a single beat, not ki-ya. Contracted sounds are the easiest to mispronounce, so they are worth extra practice.
Kana Chart
Tap any kana to hear it, then switch to practice mode and type its romaji on the keyboard
Basic kana
Type the romaji, memorize the kana
See a kana → type its romaji on the keyboard
46 kana
Practice needs a physical keyboard
Open this on a computer or a tablet with an external keyboard
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