Hiragana42

nd.
This kana is a very unique (yu) looking fish! It looks like a big 
eyeball swimming in the water.
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
YU
よ is just the “Y” sound plus お, making a “yo” sound.
The hitchhiker has his arm and thumb out. He’s yelling “YO! 
yo!” at all the cars that go past him. Why won’t they pick him 
up?
Task:
1. Using Drag n’ Drop Hiragana, drag the columns あ, か, さ, た, な, は, ま, 
and や into the correct places. You’re dragging in more hiragana than 
you’re leaving now! That’s pretty cool.
2. Using RealKana, choose same columns as in step 1 and drill them until 
you feel bored. It won’t take long. When you are, download the practice 
sheet and give it a try to see how good you are at this!
3. No romaji/kana exercise here. I want you to power through to the end 
and stretch that memory of yours!
YO
ら is just the “R” sound plus あ, making a “ra” sound.
The rapper is rapping at the DJ table.
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
RA
り is just the “R” sound plus い, making a “ri” sound.
The reeds (ri) are swaying in the wind.
This kana can also be written without the connection in the 
middle, too, which makes it more reedlike in that case (I 
wanted to present the more difficult of the two versions here, 
though).
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
RI
る is just the “R” sound plus う, making a “ru” sound.
The is like ろ/road (you’ll learn it in a second) except it has a 
loop at the end. る is a crazier route (ru). There is a loop (ru) 
at the end. Are there no rules on this road?
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
RU
れ is just the “R” sound plus え, making a “re” sound.
This looks like a guy kneeling on the ground, retching up his 
dinner.
This kana is similar to め, わ, ぬ, and ね. What makes this one 
different is the curve at the back. You can identify this as the 
guy’s knees bending, which makes it so you know he’s keeled 
over retching his guts out.
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
RE
ろ is just the “R” sound plus お, making a “ro” sound.
This is the counterpart to る, except this one doesn’t have a 
loop at the end (there are rules here!). So, this kana is just a 
plain old road.
Task:
Move on to the next Kana. Almost there!
RO
わ is just the “W” sound plus あ, making a “wa” sound.
This kana looks like a wasp flying straight up.
It looks similar to れ, ぬ, ね, and め. It looks especially similar to 
ね. You know ね is Nelly the cat because of the curl of a tail on 
the end. So, you can imagine the cat chasing this wasp, which 
is why it’s flying straight up to get away.
Task:
Move on to the next Kana.
WA
を is just the “W” sound plus お, though it sounds more like 
“oh” than it does “wo.” The “w” is pretty silent, though it’s still a 
tiny bit there.
“Whoa!” (wo) yells the guy with no chin (ち). Someone threw a 
boomerang into his mouth, so of course he’s going to yell 
something. “WHOA!”
Task:
Move on to the next Kana. Pro tip: the next kana is the last kana!
WO
ん is just the “N” sound, that’s it. It’s the only kana that 
consists of a single consonant.
This kana looks just like the lowercase “n” in English. They 
happen to be the same sounds, as well. How convenient!
Task:
1. Complete the exercises on the next page.
2. Head over to RealKana. Select all the hiragana. Deselect any katakana. 
Select every typeface. Spend 10-15 minutes drilling your hiragana. 
There’ll probably be a few trouble spots, but if you take note of them 
you should be able to re-study those kana and get them as solid as 
everything else.
3. Challenge time. Head on back to Drag n’ Drop Hiragana. Now you get to 
drag everything. See if you can get it done in under three minutes. If 
you’re really itching for a challenge, two minutes is difficult, but more 
than possible. If you’re able to do this, you’ll be able to read hiragana 
pretty well pretty quickly.
N
わ　　ぬ　　ま　　て　　を　　ね　　ぬ　　や　　よ　　ら　　む　　ま　　み　　
る　　さ　　ん　　ま　　む　　も　　う　　の　　り　　れ　　ね　　ぬ　　め　　
ね　　れ　　り　　と　　く　　ほ　　そ　　あ　　ち　　つ　　ん　　も　　よ　　
の　　け　　ひ　　ち　　ら　　ろ　　る　　へ　　こ　　う　　あ　　お　　ち　　
す　　せ　　え　　お　　む　　ほ　　ま　　も　　は　　む　　や　　ん　　よ　　
ん　　わ　　せ　　へ　　れ　　ろ　　む　　り　　ら　　ん　　よ　　を　　も　　
ま　　る　　め　　れ　　む　　る　　く　　り　　こ　　せ　　す　　け　　へ　　
む　　の　　こ　　き　　せ　　ゆ　　と　　も　　お　　む　　ん　　れ　　ら　　
こ　　ね　　ろ　　ん　　い　　の　　ね　　な　　す　　あ　　ろ　　る　　ん　　
ら　　た　　を　　ん　　わ　　く　　と　　ち　　に　　か! さ! し! な
Tasks:
Make sure you can write all the pairings down! When you can, you’ll know 
all the “Main” Hiragana. Everything after this is a breeze!
Dakuten
Dakuten are just like the kana you’ve learned, except they 
have a little symbol next to them (usually a quotation mark, 
sometimes a little circle). They look like this:
が　ば　じ　ぽ　ぴ
Not every hiragana character has a dakuten version like this. 
Only five of the columns can be transformed this way. When 
this happens, the pronunciation for that kana changes as well, 
though luckily for you it is always consistent.
Let’s go over each of those dakuten transformations.
か　→　が
Every kana in the か column can have dakuten. When this 
happens, the “K” sound goes to a “G” sound.
 か　→　が (ga)
 き　→　ぎ (gi)
 く　→　ぐ (gu)
 け　→　げ (ge)
 こ　→　ご (go)
Because you know the か column already, all you really have to 
remember is that “K” goes to “G.”
Think of it this way:
The car (ka) runs into the guard (ga) rail.
So, before you move on just make sure that you know that か 
goes to が (or き goes to ぎ, etc).
さ　→　ざ
When something from the さ column gets dakuten, it changes 
to a “z” sound with the exception of し.
 さ　→　ざ (za)
 し　→　じ (ji)
 す　→　ず (zu)
 せ　→　ぜ (ze)
 そ　→　ぞ (zo)
Because you know the さ column already, all you really have to 
remember is that “S” goes to “Z.” The only exception in there 
is し, where shi → ji. Exceptions breed new exceptions (and 
this will happen again, so keep this in mind).
Think of it this way:
The saw (sa) just ended up zapping (za) you when you 
tried to use it.
So, before you move on just make sure that you know that さ 
goes to ざ (or せ goes to ぜ, etc). Also remember that し goes 
to a “ji” sound, not a “zi” sound.
た　→　だ
Every kana in the た column can have dakuten. When this 
happens, the “T” sound goes to a “D” sound, with the 
exceptions being both ち and つ (exceptions breed 
exceptions!).
 た　→　だ (da)
 ち　→　ぢ (dzi)
 つ　→　づ (dzu)
 て　→　で (de)
 と　→　ど (do)
Because you know the た column already, all you really have to 
remember is that “T” goes to “D.” Of course, there are the 
exceptions. Luckily both ぢ and づ are quite rare and you won’t 
see them often. The pronunciation of these is a sort of “dz” 
sound which is hard for a lot of people to pronounce. Use the 
“hiragana pronunciation lesson” on TextFugu to get an exact 
pronunciation.
To remember that た (ta) goes to だ (da), think of it this way:
Changing these kana to the dakuten sounds is like 
magic... “Tada!” (ta & da)
So, before you move on just make sure that you know that た 
goes to だ with the exceptions of ち→ぢ (dzi) and つ→づ (dzu).
は　→　ば, ぱ
The は column is a strange one. This is the one that has both 
the little quotation marks and the little circles. The circles 
sound different from the quotation marks and the both sound 
different than the original は column.
 は　→　ば (ba), ぱ (pa)
 ひ　→　び (bi), ぴ (pi)
 ふ　→　ぶ (bu), ぷ (pu)
 へ　→　べ (be), ぺ (pe)
 ほ　→　ぼ (bo), ぽ (po)
You have to remember that the は column goes to both a “B” 
sound as well as a “P” sound. Think of it this way:
You are saying “hahaha” (ha) at the bar, because you’re 
tipsy.
You say “Hahaha” too much, so somebody punches you.
The “punch” one is the little circle. Why? Because a fist is like 
a little circle. So, when you see the little circle think “p” as in 
“punch.”
Before you move on, try to recall the mnemonics for the 
following:
 か　→　が
 さ　→　ざ
 た　→　だ
 は　→　ば
 は　→　ぱ
When you’re able to recall the mnemonics for these five 
dakuten patterns, you’ll be ready for the exercise on the next 
page. You know what to do!
か　　が　　さ　　ざ　　た　　だ　　は　　ば　　ぱ　　ぞ　　の　　ば　　ぱ　　
ぽ　　ほ　　ぼ　　ち　　け　　げ　　の　　で　　た　　と　　ど　　が　　ぎ　　
こ　　ぐ　　ぢ　　だ　　ぱ　　ぽ　　ほ　　け　　ご　　き　　ぶ　　ぷ　　ふ　　
ぢ　　ど　　て　　ひ　　は　　ば　　づ　　つ　　ず　　じ　　す　　ざ　　ぞ　　
さ　　せ　　ぜ　　が　　ぎ　　ぢ　　で　　ぷ　　ふ　　べ　　び　　だ　　な　　
く　　ぐ　　ず　　ぜ　　た　　な　　こ　　せ　　る　　ろ　　ね　　ぬ　　め　　
れ　　こ　　ざ　　ず　　ぢ　　で　　ど　　ら　　ふ　　ぞ　　で　　ぱ　　ぴ　　
ぷ　　で　　ど　　だ　　ざ　　じ　　ぎ　　が　　ぐ　　ご　　ぴ　　ぷ　　ぽ　　
ど　　ぺ　　べ　　あ　　ら　　な　　け　　こ　　ち　　ふ　　て　　も　　う　　
あ　　ぷ　　ふ　　と　　な　　え　　い　　こ　　き! ち　　な　　さ　　す　　
が　　ふ　　ん　　る　　を　　や　　く　　ら　　ち　　せ　　ぜ　　と　　ま　　
Tasks:
Make sure you can write all the pairings down! When you can, you’ll know 
all the hiragana! Amazing!
What Now?
Learning to read hiragana as easily as you read English will take a li!le 
bit of time but you’ll get there quickly, I’m sure. With your fancy 
hiragana knowledge, you’ll be able to use all kinds of Japanese resources 
not available to you previously. You should use those.
If you enjoyed this guide, check out TextFugu (it’s my online Japanese 
Textbook). The first season (free) covers the basics of Japanese, and goes 
beyond just learning how to read hiragana. You’ll begin Japanese 
grammar, kanji, and vocabulary as well. No ma!er what resource you 
end up using to study Japanese with, this first season will give you a 
good foundation for it. You don’t even have to be a member to access it.
Otherwise, you should continue practicing your hiragana! One way to 
do this is to visit Japanese websites and print out pages of text. There 
will be kanji and katakana in there as well, but ignoring them is part of 
the exercise. Above any hiragana you see, write out the romaji 
counterpart. If you do this for even five minutes a day, you’ll be reading 
hiragana quickly and fluently in a very short amount of time.
I hope you enjoyed this ebook (and can now read hiragana!) If you’d like, 
consider following Tofugu on Twi!er / Facebook, or join our newsle!er 
list (no spam!). Check out our store for more Japanese-related ebooks. 
We do a lot of Japanese-related things, so perhaps they will be right up 
your alley.
Also, if you have any questions, you can email me at koichi@tofugu.com.
Thanks!
Koichi