🇯🇵 Japanese for beginners (N5) · Chapter 2

Hiragana, part 2: the other rows, dakuten and small tsu

Twenty-six more shapes, two tiny marks and one small つ — and you can read every hiragana word in Japanese, from ねこ to がっこう.

Study this lesson free in the app →

The basics

This lesson finishes hiragana: the n, h, m, y, r and w rows plus ん, two marks that change a sound, and the small っ that adds a pause.

The problem it solves: with lesson 1 you can read about a fifth of the chart. Most everyday words — わたし (I), なまえ (name), ごはん (meal), がっこう (school) — need the rest. Once this is done, hiragana is finished for life.

The mental model: the same grid. New rows, same five vowel columns — with two new exceptions: ふ is fu and ん is a lone n. Then two tiny marks multiply the chart:

• Dakuten ( ゛, two dashes) makes a sound voiced: か ka → が ga, さ → ざ za, た → だ da, は → ば ba
• Handakuten ( ゜, a small circle) turns h into p: は → ぱ pa

Finally, a small っ is a one-beat pause that doubles the next consonant: きて (kite, 'come') vs きって (kitte, 'stamp').

Explained

Last lesson: 20 kana. This one: the remaining 26, plus two marks that unlock another 25 sounds for free.

By the end you can read every word a Japanese child can:

わたし (watashi, I) · ねこ (neko, cat) · ごはん (gohan, meal) · がっこう (gakkō, school) · きょう (kyō, today)

The rest of the grid

        a      i      u      e      o
  n     な na  に ni  ぬ nu  ね ne  の no
  h     は ha  ひ hi  ふ FU  へ he  ほ ho
  m     ま ma  み mi  む mu  め me  も mo
  y     や ya         ゆ yu         よ yo
  r     ら ra  り ri  る ru  れ re  ろ ro
  w     わ wa                       を O
        ん N

The y and w rows have gaps — those sounds died out of the language. ゐ and ゑ exist in old texts; you will never need them.

Picture it: n-row and h-row

• な na — a nun kneeling at a cross, a knotted rope at her side
• に ni — a leg and a little kneecap (two short strokes)
• ぬ nu — noodles with chopsticks; the loop at the end is the twirl
• ね ne — a neko (cat) with a curled tail
• の no — a big round No sign
• は ha — an 'H' (left stroke + cross) and an 'a' (the loop): ha
• ひ hi — a wide grin: 'hee hee'
• ふ fu — Mount Fuji with snow blowing off both sides
• へ he — one mountain peak: 'hey, climb it!'
• ほ ho — は with an extra chimney bar: Santa's 'ho ho ho'

Picture it: m, y, r, w and ん

• ま ma — a mast with two sails and a loop of rope
• み mi — the number 21: 'me at twenty-one'
• む mu — a cow's face: 'moo'
• め me — an eye with a lash; 目 (me) means eye. No loop, unlike ぬ
• も mo — a fish hook with two worms: 'more!'
• や ya — a yak's horns
• ゆ yu — a fish doing a U-turn
• よ yo — a yo-yo hanging from a finger
• ら ra — a rabbit sitting, the dash its ear
• り ri — two reeds by a river
• る ru — a road ending in a roundabout (the loop)
• れ re — a sprinter with one leg kicked straight back: ready!
• ろ ro — る without the roundabout: just a road
• わ wa — like ね, but the tail rolls out like a wave
• を o — someone kicking a ball: 'whoa!'
• ん n — a handwritten lowercase n

Two marks that double the chart

Dakuten ゛ — voice the consonant (your vocal cords buzz):

か ka → が ga     さ sa → ざ za
き ki → ぎ gi     し shi → じ JI
た ta → だ da     ち chi → ぢ ji (rare)
つ tsu → づ zu (rare)
は ha → ば ba

Handakuten ゜ — only on the h-row: ぱ pa, ぴ pi, ぷ pu, ぺ pe, ぽ po.

For an Indian ear: が is ग, だ is द, ば is ब, ぱ is प — all unaspirated. In everyday spelling, じ and ず are used; ぢ and づ appear only in a few words like つづく (tsuzuku, to continue).

Small っ, small ゃゅょ, and long vowels

Small っ = a held breath. It is silent but takes a full beat, and the next consonant doubles:

きて ki-te (come) → きって ki-t-te (stamp)

さか saka (slope) → さっか sakka (author)

Like the doubled consonant in Hindi पक्का or अच्छा.

Small ゃ ゅ ょ fuse with an i-column kana into one beat: き+ょ = きょ kyo, し+ゃ = しゃ sha, ち+ゅ = ちゅ chu, じ+ょ = じょ jo. Compare big: きよ is ki-yo, two beats.

Long vowels are written out and held for two beats: おかあさん (okāsan), おにいさん (onīsan), and o + う = long ō: がっこう gakkō, ありがとう arigatō.

Signs on a Tokyo internship

Arjun, in Tokyo for an internship, asks his colleague about a word on a sign.

Arjun: すみません、これは… き、っ、て?

Sato-san: きって (kitte)。stamps です。

Arjun: Ah — a small つ. Kit-te. And this, ごはん?

Sato-san: はい、gohan。ごはん は 'rice' or 'meal'.

Arjun: And きょう?

Sato-san: Kyō — today. One beat for きょ, then the long ō.

Three words, three of today's tools: small っ, dakuten, and a small ょ.

Mistakes Indian learners make

• Saying ふ as a hard 'f' (फ़). Blow gently with both lips; teeth stay off the lip.
• Rolling the r. ら is a single quick tap — the र in तारा — never a trill and never an English 'r'.
• Aspirating ぱ or か. ぱ is a plain प, not फ; か is क, not ख.
• Ignoring length. おばさん obasan (aunt) and おばあさん obāsan (grandmother) are different people; ここ koko (here) and こうこう kōkō (high school) are different places.
• Reading small っ as 'tsu'. きって is kitte, never kitsute.
• Look-alikes: ぬ/め (loop), ね/れ/わ (tail), る/ろ (loop), は/ほ (top bar).

Words to know

In two minutes

• Six more rows — n, h, m, y, r, w — fill the grid; y has only や ゆ よ and w only わ and を.
• New exceptions: ふ = fu (a soft blow, no teeth on lip), ん = n on its own, を = o (used only as a particle).
• Dakuten ゛ voices a sound: k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b. し becomes じ ji.
• Handakuten ゜ appears only on the h-row and makes p: ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ.
• Small っ is a one-beat silent pause that doubles the next consonant: きって = kit-te.
• Small ゃ ゅ ょ fuse with an i-column kana into one beat: き + ょ = きょ kyo.
• Long vowels are spelled out: おかあさん, がっこう (ou = long ō), and length changes meaning.
• The r-row is a quick tap — the Hindi र in तारा — not the English r.

Test yourself

There are 9 questions, 3 puzzles and 5 recall cards for this lesson in the app — the recall cards come back on later days, just before you would forget.