Hiragana facts for kids
Hiragana is a special way of writing in Japanese. It's one of the main parts of the Japanese writing system, along with kanji and katakana. Think of it like the "glue" that holds Japanese sentences together! Hiragana characters are used for small words that show grammar, like "from" or "his" in English. They also show the endings of words, especially verbs.
Hiragana is a type of writing system called a syllabary. This means that each Hiragana character stands for a whole sound, or syllable, like "ka" or "su". It's different from the English alphabet, where each letter usually makes just one small sound.
There's another syllabary in Japanese called katakana. Katakana is mostly used for words that come from other languages, like "computer" or "pizza," and for foreign names. Learning both Hiragana and Katakana is quite easy, usually taking only a couple of weeks. But learning kanji, which are complex characters from Chinese, takes many years of practice!
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A Little Bit of History
Long ago, Hiragana was mostly used by women in Japan. Men often wrote using kanji. Because kanji characters fit the Chinese way of writing better than Japanese, it was women who wrote many of the first Japanese books, poems, and songs.
Later, some Buddhist leaders, like Rennyo (who lived until 1498), started writing in Hiragana. They did this to make their religious messages easier for everyone to understand and read.
How Hiragana is Used
Sometimes, an entire text might be written only in Hiragana to make it very easy to read. This is common in books for young children or for students just starting to learn Japanese. It's also used when writing song lyrics under music notes, so it's clear how the words fit the tune.
You might also see small Hiragana characters called furigana written above rare or difficult kanji. These furigana show you how to pronounce the kanji.
Each Hiragana character (called a kana) is either:
- a vowel (like "a": あ)
- a consonant followed by a vowel (like "ka": か)
- or, at the end of a syllable, an "n" (ん), which sometimes sounds like an "m" or "ng."
Let's look at an example. The Japanese verb "to eat" is 食べる (taberu). Here, the main part of the word "eat" (pronounced "ta") is the kanji 食. The other two syllables, "be-ru," are written in Hiragana (べる). To say "I ate" or "you ate," you would say "tabemashita," which is written 食べました. The "be-ma-shi-ta" part is all in Hiragana.
Table of Hiragana Characters
The main Hiragana characters are shown in this table.
| vowels | yōon | ||||||
| あ a | い i | う u | え e | お o | (ya) | (yu) | (yo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| か ka | き ki | く ku | け ke | こ ko | きゃ kya | きゅ kyu | きょ kyo |
| さ sa | し shi | す su | せ se | そ so | しゃ sha | しゅ shu | しょ sho |
| た ta | ち chi | つ tsu | て te | と to | ちゃ cha | ちゅ chu | ちょ cho |
| な na | に ni | ぬ nu | ね ne | の no | にゃ nya | にゅ nyu | にょ nyo |
| は ha | ひ hi | ふ fu | へ he | ほ ho | ひゃ hya | ひゅ hyu | ひょ hyo |
| ま ma | み mi | む mu | め me | も mo | みゃ mya | みゅ myu | みょ myo |
| や ya | ゆ yu | よ yo | |||||
| ら ra | り ri | る ru | れ re | ろ ro | りゃ rya | りゅ ryu | りょ ryo |
| わ wa | ゐ wi | ゑ we | を wo | ||||
| ん n | |||||||
| が ga | ぎ gi | ぐ gu | げ ge | ご go | ぎゃ gya | ぎゅ gyu | ぎょ gyo |
| ざ za | じ ji | ず zu | ぜ ze | ぞ zo | じゃ ja | じゅ ju | じょ jo |
| だ da | ぢ (ji) | づ (zu) | で de | ど do | ぢゃ (ja) | ぢゅ (ju) | ぢょ (jo) |
| ば ba | び bi | ぶ bu | べ be | ぼ bo | びゃ bya | びゅ byu | びょ byo |
| ぱ pa | ぴ pi | ぷ pu | ぺ pe | ぽ po | ぴゃ pya | ぴゅ pyu | ぴょ pyo |
Special Sounds in Hiragana
The sound "hu" isn't common in Japanese. So, the character ふ is pronounced "fu," with a soft "f" sound.
To make sounds like "g," "d," "z," and "b," two small lines called a dakuten (゛) are added to characters that usually start with "k," "t," "s," and "h." For the "p" sound, a small circle (゜) is added after an "h" character. For example:
- は makes the sound "ha"
- ば makes the sound "ba" (with a dakuten)
- ぱ makes the sound "pa" (with a circle)
Sometimes, when words are put together to make a new compound word, a sound might change from an unvoiced sound (like "k" or "s") to a voiced sound (like "g" or "z"). For example: "hana" (はな, meaning nose) + "chi" (ち, meaning blood) becomes "hanaji" (はなぢ, meaning nosebleed).
Some Japanese syllables have "sliding" sounds. These are made by adding a small version of the Hiragana for ya, yu, or yo (ゃ, ゅ, or ょ). This is called yōon. For example: "sha" sounds like "shi" + "ya." So, "densha" (a tram) is written でんしゃ.
A small "tsu" (っ) is called a sokuon. It shows that a consonant sound is doubled. For example, "Nippon" (Japan) is written にっぽん. Without the small "tsu," the first syllable would sound like the word "knee."
Learning Hiragana and Katakana
If you're starting to learn Japanese writing, you can begin with either Hiragana or Katakana. Hiragana is the basic foundation for learning Japanese script.
However, if you're just visiting Japan and want to recognize a few words, Katakana might be more helpful. It can help you read many road signs, shop names, and items on restaurant menus, as these often use Katakana for foreign words.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Hiragana characters' shapes were derived from the Chinese cursive script (sōsho). Shown here is a sample of the cursive script by Chinese Tang Dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting, from the late 7th century. Note the character 為 (wei) that the red arrow points to closely resembles the hiragana character ゐ (wi).
See also
In Spanish: Hiragana para niños
