Hiragana Chapter 1

Hiragana Page 01 あ a

AND so begins your journey! Be sure to write each character many times

HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]

ROMAJI - a
SOUND - [as in fAther]

MEMORY: it looks like a cross with a sideways #9.  "Ah... number 9"

EXAMPLES: How do you say it?
 - Ah!

Japanese has 5 vowel sounds (a, i, u, e, o) which are used to make the rest of the Hiragana

Hiragana Page 02 い i

With only 2 Hiragana under your belt, you can begin to read real Japanese words!

HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]

ROMAJI - i
SOUND [as in 'fEEt']

MEMORY: It looks like two arms -- It will get me... EEk!!

EXAMPLES: How do you say them?
- This means "love"

- This means "good"

Find websites or books with Japanese and search for the Hiragana you know

Hiragana Page 03 う u

As we build the number of characters learned we will increase the vocabulary as well

HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]

ROMAJI - u
SOUND - [as in fOOd]

MEMORY: It looks like a nose and an opened mouth looking for fOOd

EXAMPLES: How do you say them?
- This means "to meet"

- This means "to say"

Later we will see that sometimes this character is used to make characters longer in pronunciation - keep that in mind, but don't worry, be happy

Hiragana Page 04 え e

Do your best to correctly pronounce each vowel - it will be very important later on

HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]

ROMAJI - e
SOUND - [as in hAte]

MEMORY: It looks like a person running away - I hAte runners!

EXAMPLES: How do you say them?
- This means "no"

- This means "house"

- This means "a picture"

You are doing great! Are you writing these characters down?

Hiragana Page 05 お o

You are up to your last vowel! Congrats!

HOW TO WRITE IT
[Follow the red strokes from left to right]

ROMAJI - o
SOUND - [as in OH nO!]

MEMORY: It looks like ' - a' but "OH! it's different

EXAMPLES: How do you say them?
- This means " the color blue"

- This means "hey!" - kind of rude..
.
 - This means "king"

All other Hiragana letters are consonants + a vowel (except n)

Hiragana Page 06 Review One

Here are the suspects... Can you name them?


CHAPTER 1: THE QUIZ

What is the Hiragana to the left?






Continue until you are sure of them all
REVIEW:
 		 

All other Hiragana letters are consonants + a vowel (except n)