The Complete Hiragana Guide

The gojūon, literally meaning “fifty sounds,” is the foundation of hiragana. In practice there are 46 characters, organized in a clean grid: five vowels across the top (a, i, u, e, o) and consonant groups running down the rows.

I recommend learning one row per day. Start with the vowel row (あ行), then move to the ka-row (か行), sa-row (さ行), and so on. Do not move to the next row until you can write and recognize every character in the current one from memory.

Write each character at least 20 times by hand. I know this sounds old-fashioned, but in my experience nothing beats handwriting for building character recognition. Your hand remembers what your eyes forget.

Once you know the basic 46 characters, you can unlock 25 more sounds simply by adding small marks. This is one of the things I love about Japanese — the system is logical and efficient.

Dakuten (゛) are two small diagonal strokes added to the top-right of a character. They “voice” the consonant: k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b. For example, か(ka) becomes が(ga), さ(sa) becomes ざ(za).

Handakuten (゜) is a small circle that only applies to the h-row, changing h→p. So は(ha) becomes ぱ(pa), ひ(hi) becomes ぴ(pi), and so on. Think of it as the h-row’s special power.

Yōon are formed by combining a consonant character with a small ゃ(ya), ゅ(yu), or ょ(yo). The key is that the や/ゆ/よ must be written small. If it is full-size, it is a separate syllable.

For example, き(ki) + small ゃ = きゃ(kya). This is one sound, one beat. Compare: きや(kiya) is two beats, but きゃ(kya) is one beat. This distinction matters for word meaning and for the JLPT listening section.

There are 33 yōon combinations in total, but once you understand the pattern, they are easy to learn. Every consonant follows the same rule: combine with small ゃ/ゅ/ょ.

After teaching hundreds of students, I have refined a method that works reliably across all language backgrounds. The key is not talent — it is consistent, structured daily practice.

My recommended schedule: learn 5 new characters each day, spend 15 minutes reviewing all previously learned characters, and by the end of two weeks you will have all 46 basic hiragana memorized. This is not a theory — I have seen it work for students from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mongolia.

Flashcards are good, but context is better. As soon as you learn your first 10 characters, start reading real Japanese words that use only those characters. For example, after learning あかさたな, you can already read あさ (morning), なか (inside), and たかい (expensive).

Here is something many students do not realize: the JLPT N5 exam does not use romaji at all. Every question is written in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. If you cannot read hiragana fluently, you cannot even read the questions.

Beyond simply being able to read, you need speed. The exam is timed, and students who hesitate on hiragana have less time for actually solving the problems. Fluent hiragana reading should be automatic — you should not need to think about it.

The listening section also requires hiragana knowledge, because the answer choices are written in hiragana. You need to quickly read and compare multiple choices while the audio continues.