Basic kana (清音, seion)
The 46 base characters, without any ゛ or ゜ marks.
Tap a character to hear it
Meaning
- Seion means "clear sounds". They are arranged in a table called the gojūon (五十音, "fifty sounds").
Reading the table
- Columns follow the vowels a · i · u · e · o (あ い う え お).
- Rows follow the consonants: the a-row, ka-row, sa-row …
- e.g. ka-row = か き く け こ (ka ki ku ke ko)
Good to know
- The ya-row has only や ゆ よ, and the wa-row only わ を.
- を is used only as the object particle and is pronounced like お (o).
- ん is a nasal sound that attaches to the syllable before it (n, m or ng depending on what follows). Strictly it is its own category, but it is usually taught with the basic kana.
- Watch the irregular ones: し is shi, ち is chi, つ is tsu and ふ is fu.