Japanese Alphabet: Hiragana, Katakana And Kanji Explained

  • Ichika Yamamoto
    Written byIchika Yamamoto
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Japanese Alphabet: Hiragana, Katakana And Kanji Explained

For anyone learning Japanese, you won’t get far without learning the “alphabet”.

In this guide, I’ll explain the Japanese “alphabet” (quotes intended) for you by breaking down the 3 writing systems and how they work.

As you’ll discover, writing Japanese is actually far easier than it looks.

Does Japanese have an alphabet?

Let me just clarify something:

Japanese doesn’t actually have an alphabet. Rather, it has 3 very different writing systems that serve different functions.

These 3 writing systems are called hiragana, katakana and kanji.

While there is technically a 4th system called romaji, it’s not really an official writing system for Japanese (think of it as writing Japanese using English letters). You may find romaji helpful in the beginning while learning the basics, but your goal as a Japanese student is to eventually not need it. 😊

As a new learner, you’ll want to focus your efforts firstly on hiragana, then katakana and finally kanji in this order.

Hiragana, katakana and kanji in a nutshell

Both hiragana and katakana (collectively called kana) represent the same sounds and have a one-to-one correspondence, but they’re used in different contexts and are written differently.

  • Hiragana: Cursive and rounded in appearance. It’s usually the first writing system taught to beginners because it’s used in nearly all Japanese sentences. Hiragana’s used for grammatical elements such as particles, verb endings, and some native Japanese words. Additionally, it’s used for words that don’t have kanji or if the author prefers to use hiragana for stylistic or readability reasons.
  • Katakana: More angular appearance. It’s used primarily to represent foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeic sounds (mimetic expressions), and sometimes just for emphasis (a bit like italics in English). Katakana’s also preferred for many scientific names.

How many letters are there?

Both hiragana and katakana have 46 basic syllabic characters, with some compound characters. Kanji is a-whole-nother kettle of fish. 😂

You can’t use hiragana and katakana interchangeably even if they have the same sound, as their usage is governed by specific rules and conventions.

  • Kanji: Kanji are logographic characters borrowed from Chinese. Unlike hiragana and katakana, which are syllabic scripts (each character represents a syllable much like Korean), each kanji character represents a word or concept.

Kanji’s a challenge for numerous reasons, the main one being that there are literally thousands of them to memorize. It can take years to learn just the most common of them.

The writing systems of Japanese

I’ll go into the 3 systems in more detail below, and provide you with charts of hiragana and katakana.

For obvious reasons, I can’t provide a chart of kanji. You’ll need a separate resource for that.

I recommend this one: Kanji Dictionary for Foreigners Learning Japanese - Akimoto, Miharu & Shiga, Satomi & Natsume-sha (it covers the most important 2,500 kanji).

Hiragana

Here are the 46 basic hiragana characters along with the romaji for pronunciation help.

The first 5 are the vowels.

HIRAGANAROMAJIAUDIO
aPlay audio
iPlay audio
uPlay audio
ePlay audio
oPlay audio
kaPlay audio
kiPlay audio
kuPlay audio
kePlay audio
koPlay audio
gaPlay audio
giPlay audio
guPlay audio
gePlay audio
goPlay audio
saPlay audio
shiPlay audio
suPlay audio
sePlay audio
soPlay audio
zaPlay audio
jiPlay audio
zuPlay audio
zePlay audio
zoPlay audio
taPlay audio
chiPlay audio
tsuPlay audio
tePlay audio
toPlay audio
daPlay audio
jiPlay audio
zuPlay audio
dePlay audio
doPlay audio
naPlay audio
niPlay audio
nuPlay audio
nePlay audio
noPlay audio
haPlay audio
hiPlay audio
fuPlay audio
hePlay audio
hoPlay audio
baPlay audio
biPlay audio
buPlay audio
bePlay audio
boPlay audio
paPlay audio
piPlay audio
puPlay audio
pePlay audio
poPlay audio
maPlay audio
miPlay audio
muPlay audio
mePlay audio
moPlay audio
yaPlay audio
yuPlay audio
yoPlay audio
raPlay audio
riPlay audio
ruPlay audio
rePlay audio
roPlay audio
waPlay audio
woPlay audio
n/mPlay audio

Here’s an image of the basic hiragana chart:

Hiragana chart

Katakana

These are the 46 basic katakana characters along with the romaji. As you can see, the pronunciation and number are identical to the chart above.

The first 5 are the vowels.

KATAKANAROMAJIAUDIO
aPlay audio
iPlay audio
uPlay audio
ePlay audio
oPlay audio
kaPlay audio
kiPlay audio
kuPlay audio
kePlay audio
koPlay audio
gaPlay audio
giPlay audio
guPlay audio
gePlay audio
goPlay audio
saPlay audio
shiPlay audio
suPlay audio
sePlay audio
soPlay audio
zaPlay audio
jiPlay audio
zuPlay audio
zePlay audio
zoPlay audio
taPlay audio
chiPlay audio
tsuPlay audio
tePlay audio
toPlay audio
daPlay audio
jiPlay audio
zuPlay audio
dePlay audio
doPlay audio
naPlay audio
niPlay audio
nuPlay audio
nePlay audio
noPlay audio
haPlay audio
hiPlay audio
fuPlay audio
hePlay audio
hoPlay audio
baPlay audio
biPlay audio
buPlay audio
bePlay audio
boPlay audio
paPlay audio
piPlay audio
puPlay audio
pePlay audio
poPlay audio
maPlay audio
miPlay audio
muPlay audio
mePlay audio
moPlay audio
yaPlay audio
yuPlay audio
yoPlay audio
raPlay audio
riPlay audio
ruPlay audio
rePlay audio
roPlay audio
waPlay audio
woPlay audio
n/mPlay audio

Here’s an image of the basic katakana chart:

Katakana chart

Combinations

In both hiragana and katakana, there are combinations that must learn too. Not overly complicated, don’t worry!

Here’s a brief summary of what they are (including their names):

濁音 (Dakuon)

Dakuon, or voiced sounds, are a variation of certain characters in both hiragana and katakana. These are represented by adding two small lines, called dakuten, in the top right corner of the character.

For instance, hiragana “か” (ka) becomes “が” (ga), and katakana “カ” (ka) becomes “ガ” (ga). Similarly, hiragana “さ” (sa) becomes “ざ” (za), and katakana “サ” (sa) becomes “ザ” (za).

半濁音 (Handakuon)

Handakuon, or semi-voiced sounds, are a variation of certain characters specifically in the “h” row of both hiragana and katakana. These are represented by adding a small circle, called handakuten, in the top right corner of the character.

For example, hiragana “は” (ha) becomes “ぱ” (pa), and katakana “ハ” (ha) becomes “パ” (pa). Similarly, hiragana “ひ” (hi) becomes “ぴ” (pi), and katakana “ヒ” (hi) becomes “ピ” (pi).

拗音 (Youon)

Youon, or palatalized sounds, are represented in writing by a small “ya”, “yu”, or “yo” following a character ending in “i” in both hiragana and katakana.

This results in a compound syllable. For instance, hiragana “き” (ki) + small “ゃ” (ya) = “きゃ” (kya), and katakana “キ” (ki) + small “ャ” (ya) = “キャ” (kya).

促音 (Sokuon)

Sokuon, or geminate consonants, are represented in writing by a small “tsu” character preceding another character in both hiragana and katakana.

This results in a pause before the next sound, effectively doubling the consonant that follows. For instance, hiragana “さ” (sa) with a small “tsu” before it would be “っさ” and pronounced as “ssa”. In katakana, “サ” (sa) with a small “ツ” before it would be “ッサ” and also pronounced as “ssa”.

長音 (Chouon)

Chouon, or long vowels, are represented differently in hiragana and katakana.

In hiragana, the character for the same vowel sound is usually added. For example, “お” (o) becomes “おお” or “おう” (oo), both pronounced as a longer “o” sound.

In katakana, a horizontal dash is added after the character to denote the long vowel. For instance, “オ” (o) becomes “オー” for a long “o” sound.

Hiragana combinations

HIRAGANAROMAJIAUDIO
きゃkyaPlay audio
きゅkyuPlay audio
きょkyoPlay audio
ぎゃgyaPlay audio
ぎゅgyuPlay audio
ぎょgyoPlay audio
しゃshaPlay audio
しゅshuPlay audio
しょshoPlay audio
じゃjaPlay audio
じゅjuPlay audio
じょjoPlay audio
ちゃchaPlay audio
ちゅchuPlay audio
ちょchoPlay audio
にゃnyaPlay audio
にゅnyuPlay audio
にょnyoPlay audio
ひゃhyaPlay audio
ひゅhyuPlay audio
ひょhyoPlay audio
びゃbyaPlay audio
びゅbyuPlay audio
びょbyoPlay audio
ぴゃpyaPlay audio
ぴゅpyuPlay audio
ぴょpyoPlay audio
みゃmyaPlay audio
みゅmyuPlay audio
みょmyoPlay audio
りゃryaPlay audio
りゅryuPlay audio
りょryoPlay audio

Katakana combinations

KATAKANAROMAJIAUDIO
キャkyaPlay audio
キュkyuPlay audio
キョkyoPlay audio
ギャgyaPlay audio
ギュgyuPlay audio
ギョgyoPlay audio
シャshaPlay audio
シュshuPlay audio
ショshoPlay audio
ジャjaPlay audio
ジュjuPlay audio
ジョjoPlay audio
チャchaPlay audio
チュchuPlay audio
チョchoPlay audio
ニャnyaPlay audio
ニュnyuPlay audio
ニョnyoPlay audio
ヒャhyaPlay audio
ヒュhyuPlay audio
ヒョhyoPlay audio
ビャbyaPlay audio
ビュbyuPlay audio
ビョbyoPlay audio
ピャpyaPlay audio
ピュpyuPlay audio
ピョpyoPlay audio
ミャmyaPlay audio
ミュmyuPlay audio
ミョmyoPlay audio
リャryaPlay audio
リュryuPlay audio
リョryoPlay audio

Kanji

As I mentioned above, giving you a chart of every kanji is way beyond the scope of this guide. There are literally thousands of them.

Here are two points that you should know:

  1. Most Japanese people don’t know every single Kanji so don’t beat yourself up for not knowing them all.
  2. Out of the many thousands of characters, you only need to learn a fraction of them to have a functional, proficient grasp of kanji.
  3. Kanji are something you can acquire over time. There is no urgent need to become a kanji master so take your time with it.

I mentioned a great book above that’ll help you learn 2,500 kanji (more than enough!). There are also some excellent online resources which you can see a list of here.

The Japanese “alphabet” is easy

Okay, so there’s no such thing as the Japanese “alphabet”.

Only 3 systems of written communication that each play an important role. Two of them are syllabic and easy to learn, much like Korean, while the other is logographic and will take years to acquire (but there’s no urgent need to master it).

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