Which Japanese alphabet should I learn first?

There are three characters in the Japanese language, but the first character to learn is hiragana. Hiragana is the most basic character of the Japanese language. If you want to start learning Japanese, learn hiragana first. Many of my students learn hiragana in about a month.

How many hiragana characters are there?

Hiragana has 46 sounds. In addition, there are characters that represent special sounds such as "daku on" voiced sound, "han daku on" P-sound, and "you on" contracted sound. To learn hiragana, firstly learn the 46 sounds of hiragana, and then learn the characters for the voiced sound, P-sound and you on.

Basic Hiragana

Here are five basic hiragana. These five hiragana represent Japanese vowels also. Since there are only five vowels in Japanese, it is said Japanese is easy to pronounce.

These five hiragana sounds are the first in the Japanese hiragana chart. As you can see, hiragana has many curved lines, so some people say hiragana is cute.

Can I download the hiragana chart?

A chart with all the hiragana is available in my ebook "Power Up Your Japanese". We have also included a video and a practice book so that you can study how to write hiragana.

What can be expressed in hiragana?

Hiragana represents words of Japanese origin. Japanese greetings, Japanese food, particles and adverbs are written in hiragana. The Japanese language also has kanji (Chinese characters), and hiragana can be used to support these kanji. Hiragana is used for reading (furigana) and that come after kanji(okurigana).

Learning hiragana is essential for studying Japanese. You cannot study Japanese without first learning hiragana.

What is the next character to learn after hiragana?

After hiragana, students will study katakana. Katakana has the same 46 sounds, and like hiragana, it has the same "daku on" voiced sound, "han daku on" P-sound, and "you on" contracted sound. Some of the shapes are also similar to hiragana, so it's easy to remember.

And next one you should learn is Kanji. Kanji is the core of the Japanese language. There are 2,136 kanji in common-used one. The number is so huge, so let's study Kanji together little by little according to your own Japanese learning goal.