Basic Hiragana Chart and Additionals

The hiragana chart below shows the 46 basic characters together with their romaji. The 5 in the first row are the vowels.

Combined with the vowels, the rest of the rows formed the remaining hiragana. The only exception is the singular consonant ん (n).

Besides, though を is written as (wo), it is pronounced the same as お (o).

Note: Don't get overwhelmed by the amount of characters you see in the various charts. You are not required to learn and memorize them in a day. I spent about few weeks to learn the 46 basic characters.

To know what is the correct pronunciation of each hiragana character, go to this "Learn to speak Japanese online with hiragana audios" page.

The 46 Basic Characters

The above hiragana chart is also called 五十音図 (gojuuonzu), which means diagram of 50 sounds in Japanese, though it only has 46 sounds.

濁音 (dakuon) and 半濁音 (handakuon)

Additional hiragana are formed by adding double dots ( ゛) and circle ( ゜) to the upper right hand corner of certain hiragana.

By adding double dots or 濁点 (dakuten) to k-line, s-line, t-line and h-line, we will get the additional hiragana of g-line, z-line, d-line and b-line respectively.

And by adding circle or 半濁点 (handakuten) to the h-line, the p-line is formed. See the additional hirigana chart below.

Note: ぢ & づ in the d-line are less commonly used as compared to じ & ず

拗音 (youon)

Another group of additional Japanese hiragana called 拗音 (youon) is formed by adding smaller version of ya, yu or yo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ) to hiragana ending in vowel i. See the hiragana chart below.

Below shows the additional hiragana chart of 拗音 (youon) with 濁点 (dakuten) and 半濁点 (handakuten).

促音 (sokuon)

When a small tsu (っ) called 促音 (sokuon) is added, it means the following consonant is geminated or doubled (double consonants). This small (っ) forms the double consonants with the following character.

This also means after we pronounce the previous consonant, we pause for the same amount of time used to pronounce the consonant, then continue to pronounce the following consonant.

For example, when "と" in おと (oto which means "sound") is geminated, it becomes おっと (otto which means "husband"), with a pause in between お and と when pronounced.

• おと (oto) → おっと (otto)

However, hiragana from the n-line cannot be geminated, unless the singular consonant ん (n) is added in front.

Long Vowels 長音 (chouon)

For long vowels, we normally add a second vowel following the first vowel. See the examples below:

Although both sokuon and chouon are not in the hiragana charts, they are important in helping to pronounce Japanese correctly.

Take some time to memorize the above hiragana charts. It really helps when you start to learn kanji.

Disclosure: Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links. That means I will receive a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through those links, at no additional cost to you.

Related Page

FAQ Page: What are sokuon and long vowels?

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