Japanese Writing: A Beginner‘s Guide262

Introduction

Learning to write in Japanese can be a daunting task, but it is an essential skill for anyone who wants to communicate effectively in the language. Hiragana and katakana are two of the three writing systems used in Japanese, along with kanji. In this lesson, we will learn about hiragana, the Japanese phonetic alphabet.

Hiragana

Hiragana is a syllabary, which means that each character represents a syllable. There are 46 basic hiragana characters, each of which is used to represent a different sound. The table below shows the basic hiragana characters and their corresponding sounds:Table 1: Hiragana Chart


| あ | い | う | え | お |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| か | き | く | け | こ |
| さ | し | す | せ | そ |
| た | ち | つ | て | と |
| な | に | ぬ | ね | の |
| は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ |
| ま | み | む | め | も |
| や | ゆ | よ |
| ら | り | る | れ | ろ |
| わ | を | ん |

Combining Hiragana

Hiragana characters can be combined to form words and sentences. For example, the characters あ (a) and い (i) can be combined to form the word "ai", which means "love". The characters か (ka) and ら (ra) can be combined to form the word "kara", which means "from".

Writing Hiragana

Hiragana is written from left to right, and the characters are generally connected to each other. The strokes of each character are written in a specific order, and it is important to follow this order when writing hiragana. The table below shows the stroke order for each hiragana character.Table 2: Hiragana Stroke Order


| あ | い | う | え | お |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for あ | Image of stroke order for い | Image of stroke order for う | Image of stroke order for え | Image of stroke order for お |


| か | き | く | け | こ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for か | Image of stroke order for き | Image of stroke order for く | Image of stroke order for け | Image of stroke order for こ |


| さ | し | す | せ | そ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for さ | Image of stroke order for し | Image of stroke order for す | Image of stroke order for せ | Image of stroke order for そ |


| た | ち | つ | て | と |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for た | Image of stroke order for ち | Image of stroke order for つ | Image of stroke order for て | Image of stroke order for と |


| な | に | ぬ | ね | の |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for な | Image of stroke order for に | Image of stroke order for ぬ | Image of stroke order for ね | Image of stroke order for の |


| は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for は | Image of stroke order for ひ | Image of stroke order for ふ | Image of stroke order for へ | Image of stroke order for ほ |


| ま | み | む | め | も |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for ま | Image of stroke order for み | Image of stroke order for む | Image of stroke order for め | Image of stroke order for も |


| や | ゆ | よ |
|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for や | Image of stroke order for ゆ | Image of stroke order for よ |


| ら | り | る | れ | ろ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for ら | Image of stroke order for り | Image of stroke order for る | Image of stroke order for れ | Image of stroke order for ろ |


| わ | を | ん |
|---|---|---|
| Image of stroke order for わ | Image of stroke order for を | Image of stroke order for ん |

Conclusion

Hiragana is a relatively simple writing system to learn, and it is a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn to write in Japanese. Once you have mastered hiragana, you can begin to learn katakana and kanji.

2024-10-29

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