1.0 Introduction

• Hiragana (ひらがな) is one of three ‘character sets’ used in Japanese (にほんご／日本語/nihongo).

• It is a fundamental set of characters and usually the first learned.

• Each character represents what is essentially a syllable, consisting of combinations of ‘k’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘n’, ‘h’, ‘m’, ‘y’, ‘r’ and ‘w’ with the vowels ‘a’, ‘i’, ‘u’, ‘e’ and ‘o’. Note that there are exceptions -some combinations may not actually exist, or are pronounced differently.

• Romaji refers to the romanisation of Japanese characters; using the Latin/Roman alphabet. The act of writing ひらがな as ‘hiragana’ and ローマ字 as ‘romaji’; is an example of this romanisation.

• To install a Japanese keyboard on a Windows 10 device, you can go to Settings>Time & Language>Language>Add a language>enter “Japanese”. To use this keyboard, press the Windows key + Space , then click the ‘A’ at the bottom right corner to turn it into あ。

  • After following these steps, you should be able to type characters, and it will automatically suggest more based on what you're already typing. By right-clicking on the above symbol, you can adjust settings to be only output a certain character set (e.g just Hiragana)

1.1 ひらがな (Hiragana) - Table

1.2 Remembering ひらがな Characters

• Associating imagery with these characters helps with memorisation.

• Stroke order (the order in which you draw each line in a character) is a whole other topic, and can only really be perfected by practising them IRL. It is helpful to familiarise yourself with the depictions of the characters, though.

Some of these characters are not pronounced the way that they are with the imagery used, e.g よ is not pronounced ‘yo’ but actually like ‘yoh’. Refer to an audio guide, like this****, to actually hear the way they are pronounced.

The -As

• あ (a) - This looks like an antenna, does it? (Please say it does)

• か (ka) - It looks like a knife katting (cutting) some bread.

• さ (sa) - This is a samurai, with their arms out.

• た (ta) - It literally looks like a ta.

• な (na) - A nan (nun) praying at a cross.

• は (ha) - There’s someone pointing at you and laughing. Ha ha ha!

• ま (ma) - There’s some magic going on, because humans don’t usually have four arms.

• や (ya) - You’re in a tiny -yacht, sailing amongst treacherous waves.

• ら (ra) - There’s a little -rabbit, with its ears pointed back.

• わ (wa) - It looks like an insect with large wings, flying upwards. Let’s call it a -wasp.

The -Is

• い (i) - If you use your imagination - two tris (trees) in Hawaii

• き (ki) - Looks kind of like a -ki- (key) in a lock.

• し (shi) - Let’s say you sat on the pointy end of this by accident. You’d say -SHI-[redacted]

• ち (chi) - Someone’s jumping for joy! It’s a -chi-rleader (cheerleader)

• に (ni) - Imagine this is your -nicap (kneecap)

• ひ (hi) - Looks like a friendly smile. Imagine this is you when you introduce yourself. -Hi!

• み (mi) - Are you 21 [the character looks like a 21]? No. But who’s 21? -Mi! (me)

• / (yi doesn’t exist)

• り (ri) - Two -ri-ds (reeds), curling in the wind.

• / (wi doesn’t exist)

The -Us

• う (u) - Something falls on your back. -U! (Ooh!) you say.

• く(ku) - Looks kind of like a bea-ku

• す(su) - A roll of -sushi that fell off the table.

• つ (tsu) - Uh oh, -tsunami!

• ぬ (nu) - Bowl of -nudles (noodles) with some chopsticks.

• ふ (fu) - Looks like a mountain - Mount -Fuji, a volcano southwest of Tokyo.

• む (mu) - There’s a cow there, looking straight at you. -Mu! (moo)

• ゆ (yu) - You’re driving and you do a weird -yu-turn (U-turn)

• る (ru) - You have a sack, and it has a -ruby in it.

• / (wu doesn’t exist)

The -Es

• え (e) - It looks sort of like a ‘Z’, right? Zebra!

• け (ke) - A -kettle.

• せ (se) - You’re watching a nice sun-set with your friend.

• て (te) - Looks somewhat like a -tennis racket.

• ね (ne) - You’re standing here holding a big -net! It’s got a fish in it.

• へ (he) - An arrow pointing upward to -heaven.

• め (me) - You were eating your bowl of -nudles (noodles), but you spilt the egg and now there’s a -mess!

• / (ye doesn’t exist)

• れ (re) - You’re kneeling down with your hands on the ground, -resting.

• / (we doesn’t exist)

The -Os

• お (o) - Doesn’t it look like a golf course? With the flag, the grass, and the flying golf ball…

• こ (ko) - Looks sort of like a -koin (coin).

• そ (so) - That’s some really jagged -sowing that you have there.

• と (to) - That’s your -toe. You might need -to- go to hospital, though.

• の (no) - It looks like an ‘n’ and an ‘o’ all in once.

• ほ (ho) - It’s quite -hot, so you put your hat on while talking to your friend.

• も (mo) - You’re fishing, and you want some -more fish on your hook.

• よ (yo) - A -yo-yo- (self explanatory)

• ろ (ro) - Remember the ruby from above? A -robber came and stole it.

• を (wo (o)) - You’re running, but then you trip and fall into a hole. -Wo! (woah!) you say. Note, this is pronounced ‘o’, not ‘wo’, but for memorisation purposes ¯\(ツ)/¯

Other

• ん (n) - Literally just looks like an ‘n’.

1.3 Update Log

2022/11/12

• Just logged back on - thank you to the people who have rated my set! Glad to see it’s been of use.

• Updated the flashcards, since previously they didn’t test the user on the actual ひらがな and actually tested them on the made up picture mnemonics. The flashcards are in a different order to the way that mnemonics are presented though :( see dot point 5.

• Struck through the combinations that didn’t actually exist to emphasise that they, well, didn’t exist.

• Added instructions on how to download a Japanese keyboard on Windows 10.

• The way I was taught ひらがな actually went through a, i, u, e, o, then ka, ki, ku, ke ko etc. I only realised later that I didn’t follow this convention in my set. If people want it to be changed, I’m happy to spend some time shifting that around.

• Dakuten (e.g が), handakuten (e.g か゚) and chiisai kana (e.g ぁ) are currently not in this set as I have not explained them yet.

• Working on the katakana set :D

2024/10/22

• Fixed strange table formatting.

• It’s been a while. For those of you still here, whoever you are, I hope you have a great day.