Introduction to Hiragana Vowels

日本語(にほんご)マスターへ、ようこそ！

You have now started your journey in learning the wonderful language of Japanese! There are many reasons why you might want to learn Japanese and we're excited to join you! With Nihongo Master, you will learn how to speak, hear, write and read Japanese. In this lesson, you'll see the different writing systems of Japanese. You will even learn the first few characters and even some new words! This is just one of hundreds of Japanese lessons you'll find in our online classroom.

Note

Listening And Practicing Your Speech

Use the speaker button to listen to some Japanese. If you have a microphone, you can use the microphone button to record your own voice. Then use the middle play button to play back your voice. Practice listening to your own Japanese to improve your pronunciation!

Writing and Reading Japanese

In the Japanese language, there are three different writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. They serve different purposes and they look different from each other. Once you begin learning them, you'll recognize them quickly. Don't get overwhelmed!

Practice

Practicing Your Writing

When we introduce new characters and words, you will notice a pencil tool. When you use it, we will show you how to write the character shown. It's important to practice writing to help you memorize new characters. At the end of the lesson, you can print a custom writing sheet that includes the new characters you have learned.

Try it now and learn to write your first Kanji, 日, which means Sun.

Introducing Hiragana (ひらがな)

Hiragana is the first writing system you will learn. Children in Japan learn how to write Hiragana first and it's a lot of fun! There are 46 different characters that you will learn over time. In this lesson, we will learn the vowels.

Example Hiragana

Original text

すごい

Translation text

This is the Japanese word sugoi which you might hear a Japanese person say when something is terrific or fantastic. Notice that Hiragana characters have a lot of curves to them.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Introducing Katakana (カタカナ)

Katakana characters are used when writing words borrowed from other languages. It can also be used for writing sounds like a person laughing or a baby crying. We learn Katakana characters after learning Hiragana.

Example Katakana

Original text

ホテル

Translation text

This is the Japanese word hoteru which means "hotel". Katakana words sounds a lot like the word it is borrowed from. Notice that the characters have more sharp angles to them than Hiragana

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Introducing Kanji (かんじ)

Kanji is characters adapted from the Chinese language. There are thousands of Kanji characters in the Japanese language. You don't need to learn all of them. There are about two thousand common Kanji that are used in today's Japanese text. You will slowly be introduced to these characters in future lessons.

Example Kanji

Original text

語

Translation text

This kanji represents the meanings of "word", "speech" or "language". Kanji are usually combined with Hiragana to create full words. For example, 語(かた)る means "to talk".

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Our First Hiragana Characters

In this lesson, we will learn the vowels in Hiragana. Unlike English, these vowels have just one pronunciation. In English, the vowel, A, can sound like apple or airplane. Two very different sounds. In Japanese, the vowels have only one sound and that makes it very easy!

Original text

あ

Translation text

This is the vowel, 'A'. It sounds like the A in father.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

い

Translation text

This is the vowel, 'I'. It sounds like the the 'ee' in bee or see.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

う

Translation text

This is the vowel, 'U'. It sounds like the 'oo' in food.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

え

Translation text

This is the vowel, 'E'. It sounds like the 'E' in egg.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

お

Translation text

This is the vowel, 'O'. It sounds like the 'O' in over.

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Writing Practice Sheets

It's important to practice your writing daily. When you write, your brain remembers what you've learned faster. When we introduce new characters, we provide writing sheets to help you practice.

Download Your First Practice Writing Sheet

Vocabulary

You are on your way to learning the rest of the Hiragana characters! So far, you've learned five characters but that's already enough to learn some words. Below is a small list of words that use the characters you've learned.

Original text

あう

Translation text

Verb: To meet, to join, to fit together

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

いう

Translation text

Verb: To say

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

いえ

Translation text

Noun: House

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

うえ

Translation text

Noun: Above, Up, Over

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

Original text

あおい

Translation text

Adjective: Blue

Listen and practice speech

Practice writing

What's Next?

If you want to continue learning more Japanese, subscribe now and gain access to hundreds of Japanese lessons to teach you something new in as little as five minutes a day. You'll also get access to our advanced tools to help you memorize what you've learned! Try it, risk free with our 7 day free trial!