Hiragana is monosyllabic (or whatever the word is), meaning that each character represents one and only one syllable or sound. It stays pretty uniform, unlike English or French, where letters barely have any meaning and almost every word's pronunciation has to be painstakingly memorized.
Hiragana has five vowels:
あ - A, as in father い - I, as in sushi う - U, as in super え - E, as in suavemente お - O, as in open
With these, consonants can be put in front of them to create new sounds.
K— か - KA, as in copy き - KI, as in keeper く- KU, as in kumbaya, my Lord... け - KE, as in Ken こ - KO, as in Riiiiiiiicola!
S— さ - SA, as in sopping wet し - SHI, (not SI) as in sheets す - SU, as in suit せ - SE, as in separate そ - SO, as in heart'sbeenbrokesomanytimes...
T— た - TA, as in taco ち - CHI, (not TI) as in cheat つ - TSU, (not TU) as in tsunami て - TE, as in temperature と - TO, as in toe
N— な - NA, as in naw, naw honey I'm good に - NI, as in NICO NICO NI ぬ - NU as in newspaper ね - NE, as in never GONNA GIVE YOU UP の - NO, as in.... n o
H— は - HA, as in hahaha ひ - HI, as in heat ふ - H(F)U, as in who へ - HE, as in hell ほ - HO, as in hope
M— ま - MA, as in mama mia み - MI, as in meter む - MU, as in smooch め - ME, as in Metaknight も - MO, as in mocha
Japanese R's are slightly different than ours. It's a mixture of R and D really. Takes much practice and listening.
R— ら - RA り - RI る - RU れ - RE ろ - RO
Almost there...
Y— や - YA, as in yatzee ゆ - YU, as in you よ - YO, as in yo mama
W— わ - WA, as in Waluigi time を - WO, as in bot'ol o' wot'a (sorry Brits 😂)
N/M— ん - NN/MM
This is a sound with no vowel at all, just close you mouth and hum or something.
Here is a chart with all of them:
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But alas... that's not it.
We can make more sounds!
I give you the dakuten, and the handakuten!
DAKUTEN: Means "voiced." A hard consonant can be softened by voicing it. K — G T — D S — Z And so on... the dakuten indicates this softening. It is the tiny little lines just are to the right of the kana. か — が KA turns into GA た — だ TA turns into DA さ — ざ SA turns into ZA
HANDAKUTEN: Means "half voiced." This is only special to the H column. Yes, the H column. The handakuten is the tiny circle to the right of the kana. は — ば — ぱ HA turns to BA to PA ひ — び — ぴ HI turns to BI to PI ふ — ぶ — ぷ HU turns to BU to PU へ — べ — ぺ HE turns to BE to PE ほ— ぼ — ぽ HO turns to BO to PO
Don't ask, just memorize.
Full list:
G— が - GA, as in Ghandi ぎ - GI, as in Molly McGee ぐ - GU, as in goofball げ - GE, as in get out ご - GO, as in gopher
Z— ざ - ZA, as in ZA WARUDO じ - JI, (not ZI) as in Jumanji ず - ZU, as in zoo ぜ - ZE, as in zed ぞ - ZO, as in Jeff Bezzos
D— だ - DA, as in domination ぢ - JI, (not DI) as in Jeep づ - ZU, (not DU) as in ZuMbA で - DE, as in desk ど - DO, as in dope
B— ば - BA, as in baa baa black sheep び - BI, as in beep ぶ - BU, as in boom べ - BE, as in better ぼ - BO, as in boat
P— ぱ - PA, as in nene papa (Hetalians where u at) ぴ - PI, as in pee ぷ - PU, as in Putin ぺ - PE, as in pencil ぽ - PO, as in poacher
But wait! There's more!!!!
WE CAN STILL MAKE MORE SOUNDS.
I give you, the diagraph.
The diagraph is any I-row kana (except the stand alone vowel い) with any Y-column kana next to it. This is what happens: き — きゃ KI turns to KYA し — しゅ SHI turns to SHU に — にょ NI turns to NYO Notice how the Ys have shrunk a little.
Keep in mind that with the 2/3 irregular kanas (し and ち), you don't pronounce the "y" part. It's simply "sha" "shu" "sho", and "cha" "chu" "cho." Everything else has that little "y" in it.
Chart:
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Miscellaneous rules:
A little つ (っ) is used as a glottal stop. This is a pause in your speech, closing your throat to "stop" sound from coming through.
やって ya... te いっぱい i... pai がっこう ga... kou
When う proceeds any O-row, or い to any E-row, the O or E is prolonged. The actual sound is washed out.
しょう sho~ けい kee~
And that just about does it. That was a lot. Pat yourself on the back for that.
*pat* *pat*
Practice Time!
Can you read these?
くさ あおい ともだち かみさま ぎゅうにゅう りょうり すっと けっこん けいさつかん
Answers!
Kusa - grass Aoi - blue Tomodachi - friends Kamisama - God or a god Gyuunyuu - milk Ryouri - cooking or cuisine Sutto - throughout Kekkon - marriage Keisatsukan - police officer
