Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet that was developed in the ninth century to simplify writing. It nowadays is mainly used for native Japanese words. Hiragana are derived from more complex kanji and each hiragana represents a syllable. A total of 46 hiragana is used in contemporary Japanese writing.
List of the 46 hiragana and their 25 diagritics (with ゛or ゜)
Click on the Hiragana to learn how to write and pronounce it.
| A | I | U | E | O |
| あ (a) | い (i) | う (u) | え (e) | お (o) |
| か (ka) が (ga) |
き (ki) ぎ (gi) |
く (ku) ぐ (gu) |
け (ke) げ (ke) |
こ (ko) ご (go) |
| さ (sa) ざ (za) |
し (shi) じ (ji) |
す (su) ず (zu) |
せ (se) ぜ (ze) |
そ (so) ぞ (zo) |
| た (ta) だ (da) |
ち (chi) ぢ (ji) |
つ (tsu) づ (zu) |
て (te) で (de) |
と (to) ど (do) |
| な (na) | に (ni) | ぬ (nu) | ね (ne) | の (no) |
| は (ha) ば (ba) ぱ (pa) |
ひ (hi) び (bi) ぴ (pi) |
ふ (fu) ぶ (bu) ぷ (pu) |
へ (he) べ (be) ぺ (pe) |
ほ (ho) ぼ (bo) ぽ (po) |
| ま (ma) | み (mi) | む (mu) | め (me) | も (mo) |
| や (ya) | ゆ (yu) | よ (yo) | ||
| ら (ra) | り (ri) | る (ru) | れ (re) | ろ (ro) |
| わ (wa) | を (wo/o) | |||
| ん (n) |
The combination of some of these hiragana is used to express a few additional sounds used in Japanese. The first character is written in normal size whereas the second character is written a little bit smaller. These combinations are called digraphs.
List of 21 hiragana digraphs and their 15 diagritics
| YA | YU | YO |
| きゃ (kya) ぎゃ (gya) |
きゅ (kyu) ぎゅ (gyu) |
きょ (kyo) ぎょ (gyo) |
| しゃ (sha) じゃ (ja) |
しゅ (shu) じゅ (ju) |
しょ (sho) じょ (jo) |
| ちゃ (cha) ぢゃ (ja) |
ちゅ (chu) ぢゅ (ju) |
ちょ (cho) ぢょ (jo) |
| にゃ (nya) | にゅ (nyu) | にょ (nyo) |
| ひゃ (hya) びゃ (bya) ぴょ (pyo) |
ひゅ (hyu) びゅ (byu) ぴゅ (pyu) |
ひょ (hyo) びょ (byo) ぴょ (pyo) |
| みゃ (mya) | みゅ (myu) | みょ (myo) |
| りゃ (rya) | りゅ (ryu) | りょ (ryo) |
HIRAGANA & KATAKANA TEST
Just follow this Twitter account and start receiving 10 tweets per day with randomly selected hiragana and katakana including links to the solution.
PRACTICE WRITING THE HIRAGANA with the Print Yourself Workbook
Download the NIHONGO ICHIBAN PRINT YOURSELF Hiragana & Katakana Workbook and practice writing hiragana on worksheets that you can print at home as often as you like.
NIHONGO ICHIBAN 
this is great..wanna visit here more often…i really wanna learn how to speak and write Japanese… ❤
great! thanks!
ah.. great! thanks, and i’ll visit more! is helping me a lot!^^
wow!! this site is great!! its help us to learn how to write and read japanese!! good jod and more powers!! ^_
Thanks For Everything!!
good for new learners of the language, though i suggest showing the near-defunct Wi and We…
I think it would confuse people if they learned this and then realize the characters show up in Wikipedia or something. It sure confused me!
@Jeff I thought about the Wi and We but they are more theoretical and although I live in Japan for 12 years I cannot recall that I ever have seen them as Hiragana. They also are not required for the JLPT. So I thought to better not show them.
What is “diagritics”?
Hello!
When I click on the link it says “The page was not found” =(
Could you please fix the link?
I would be very thankful!!
Hello,
It should be fix now! You can also go to “resources” and “Books & Material” where there are other links.
Thank you for checking Nihongo Ichiban !
Best Regards,
Sophie
Yes, it works now and I immediately ordered it. Thank you very much! =D
Bets regards!
Just to add げ should be pronounced as ge instead of ke.
Hi i can’t see anything in Japanese characters do i need to install some font.
Please help
Could you upload in a gif version the voiced and voiced syllables (ga, gi, gu, ke, go…), please?
Hi i can’t see anything in Japanese characters do i need to install some font.
Please help