- Introduction
- Basic Greetings
- Japanese Writing Systems
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- The Small "っ"
- Kanji
- Basic Sentence Structure
- Sources
ひらがな - Hiragana
Hiragana characters are the simplified form of Japanese writing. All these characters have an independent sound but no individual meaning. Hiragana characters are typically used for native Japanese words. Words like こんにちは (konnichiha) which means hello, would be written in hiragana.
Pronunciation of Hiragana Characters
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/9/8/11981960/7754624.png)
Hiragana characters form sounds, not words. See diagram to the left to see the pronounciations. You can pair up the green characters to make the word karate, からて. Be mindful of of pronunciation, although karate is prounounced karati in America, in Japan the te sound is used. There is no ti sound when writing hiragana.However, recently, Japan has adopted several katakana characters to allow for Japanese speakers to pronounce certain words from different countries.
Hiragana Stroke Orders
It is very important when writing Japanese to learn the stroke orders, it will greatly affect the looks and shapes of your characters. Also, it is impressive to many native Japanese people when a foreigner can write properly.