Hiragana Quiz

When you think of English (among other languages), you probably think of the ABCs: a single, 26-letter alphabet that allows speakers to form, spell, and pronounce words. In Japanese, the closest equivalent to the English ABCs would be hiragana . Let’s break it down further:

The Japanese Alphabets
Japanese technically has 4 alphabets/writing systems—but hiragana is the most important one to learn first, since it represents all the different sounds that can be authentically produced in Japanese. Once you’ve mastered hiragana, it’ll be so much easier to dive into other Japanese alphabets, like katakana and kanji.

• Hiragana: The core Japanese alphabet that represents all the different sounds that can be made in the Japanese language.
  
• Katakana: A Japanese alphabet used to spell/signify foreign words. It has the same sounds as hiragana, but uses a different spelling system.
  
• Kanji: A Japanese script written with Chinese characters, which helps to form all sorts of words within the Japanese language.
  
• Romaji: The English transcription of Japanese words.
  
  

How many hiragana letters are there? There are 46 core letters in the base hiragana alphabet. Some visualizations categorize the hiragana alphabet , with the vertical axis representing the core vowel sound (a, i, u, e, o) and the horizontal axis representing the core consonant sound (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, n).

This is just a starting point, though. The hiragana alphabet can produce over 100 different unique sounds thanks to dakuten, handakuten, and combinations.

• Dakuten: A mark that resembles a quotation mark (“) placed next to the hiragana letter, changing the original pronunciation to a g , z , d , b , or j sound.
• Handakuten: A mark that resembles a degree sign (°) placed next to the hiragana letter, changing the original pronunciation to a p sound.
• Combinations: The process of combining a primary hiragana letter with the ya (ゃ), yu (ゅ), or yo (ょ) sound, creating a new in the process.