Kana (Part III)

Time for some more hiragana. There are a total of 46 hiragana characters so you should already be halfway through them now. Don't forget to research how they are pronounced and listen to them been spoken by a native. Also, stroke order is very important

N Group ( な に ぬ ね の )

H Group ( は ひ ふ へ ほ )

Pay close attention to the ふ (fu) character. It's similar to an f sound but it's not so much. When pronouncing this character, try to make the f sound similar to the h in hot so it's more like a breath out.

B Group ( ば び ぶ べ ぼ )

The N characters cannot use the dakuten yet the H characters can; this turns them into B sounds.

P Group ( ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ )

The H characters can also use another symbol, the handakuten (Also known as a maru). The handakuten is a small circle placed in the same place as the dakuten giving the H character a P sound. Both the dakuten and handakuten cannot be used at the same time and only the H characters can use the handakuten.

By now, Hiragana should be getting a lot more easier to read. Try practice writing the words we've learned so far or with other words anywhere you can. We'll be switching over from romaji very soon so it's very important to start getting use to them. Romaji is not reliable and won't help when reading Japanese, especially with long complex sentences using kanji.

In the next lesson, we will be going over Desu and Wa to begin forming some basic sentences. Please, look forwards to it.