1. Hiragana Chart

Hiragana developed from simplified forms of certain kanji, transforming complex characters into a more streamlined, cursive script. It is used to write Japanese words and grammatical elements. There are 46 basic hiragana characters, as shown in the chart below. The chart is organized by rows and columns. Each row groups related hiragana, and each column shows a consistent typing pattern. The column labels appear in the first row, and the second row, labeled “Vowel row,” shows the five basic vowels in Japanese: あ、い、う、え、お. The chart begins with あ and continues as い、う、え、お、か、き、く、け、こ, following this pattern through all rows, and ends with the final character ん. Unlike the other rows, the last row contains only one character, ん. The chart also represents the standard ordering of hiragana used in Japanese dictionaries. Italicized letters in parentheses in the following chart indicate typing input (how the hiragana sequence is entered on an English keyboard).

Typing Notes

1. Some characters have multiple typing options. For example: し → s i or s h i, ち → t i or c h i, つ → t u or t s u, and ふ → h u or f u. You only need to remember one form.
2. The final character ん (n or nn) is a special character that functions independently and does not occur at the beginning of Japanese words. To represent sequences such as な、に、ぬ、ね、の, use the N-row hiragana: な、に、ぬ、ね、の ►. When ん is followed by a vowel as in んあ、んい、んう、んえ、んお ►, the two characters remain separate and do not combine into a single character.
3. You may use typing input introduced above to support learning, but try to recognize hiragana without relying on the alphabet.

Cultural Note

Additional Activities