Free Japanese Guide
Learn hiragana (ひらがな)
Hiragana is the first Japanese syllabary every learner masters — the curvy characters used for native words, grammar particles, and verb endings. There are 46 basic characters, and with the right mnemonics you can learn to read all of them in a single sitting. This guide gives you every character, its romaji, and a memory hook — then points you to free interactive practice.
The 46 basic hiragana
Each character below links to a dedicated page with its romaji and mnemonic. Tap through, or read the full hiragana chart.
How to learn hiragana fast
1. Use mnemonics, not rote copying
Every hiragana character has a shape that suggests its sound. Linking the visual to the sound with a one-line story (a memory hook) is dramatically faster than copying rows of characters. Each glyph page here includes a ready-made mnemonic.
2. Learn the five vowels first
あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o). Every other row adds a consonant to these vowels, so once the vowels are solid the rest follows a predictable pattern: か = k + a, き = k + i, and so on.
3. Practice by typing, not just recognizing
Recognition (seeing a character and recalling its sound) is the easy half. Production — typing the romaji when you see the glyph — cements it. The yomion app drills both directions free, plus look-alike trainers for the tricky pairs (シ/ツ, ソ/ン, め/ぬ).
Dakuten and handakuten
Two small marks turn basic hiragana into new sounds: the dakuten (゛) voices a consonant (か → が, ka → ga), and the handakuten (゜) applies only to the h-row (は → ぱ, ha → pa). You don't need to memorize these from scratch — they're systematic modifications of the 46 basics. The full chart includes all of them.