Kana (Part V)

Let's now finish off our last Hiragana lesson. Hopefully you've been practicing. If you can't read and write hiragana at the end of this lesson, you should definitely review the previous kana lessons. Soon you'll start seeing more real Japanese Kana rather than Romaji so be ready and prepared for it.

Here are the last six remaining Hiragana characters we'll be covering. In the next section, we'll show what else can be done with certain characters to make more sounds. The last Hiragana here, ん (n), is the only character without a vowel.

Small Kana

The Y characters are quite special as they can be placed with some other characters to make other sounds. In order to do that, they need to be written smaller than usual. They also need to be placed after the character that ends with an "i" sound.

Notice the size difference between や and ゃ (やゃ / ゆゅ / よょ). The ones we're using are the small Y characters to replace the "i" sound with ya, yu and yo. Make sure that the small kana are used when necessary otherwise the meaning will change.

The Double Consonant

The small っ expresses a double consonants in Japanese. っ doubles the consonant of the kana after it; for example: った (tta), っほ (hho), っつ (ttsu) and so on.

When pronouncing the っ in Japanese, there will be a slight pause. If it is pronounced incorrectly, it may change the meaning of the word completely. It may seem tricky at first but you'll get use to it the more often you hear and use it.

Long Vowels

Similar to the double consonant, ー used after Kana makes the vowel sound twice as long. That's not all, the sound of a long vowel can be written using double vowels too: ああ (aa), ねえ (nee) or びゅう (byuu). Just be careful how long vowels are written or pronounced.

If the pronunciation is wrong, it may change the meaning of the word completely. Here are two examples of how long vowels can change the meaning of a word.

Imagine someone asked where you are planning to go on holiday and you said にゅうよく (nyuuyoku) because, after all, this sounds just like "New York" (even more so than "nyuuyooku" does) but instead what you actually said was, "I am planning to go on holiday in the Bathroom". Also, maybe it's not wise to call your Aunt your Grandmother either.

Small Vowels

One set of Hiragana you may notice are the small Hiragana of the vowels. See how the regular and small kana compare: あぁ / いぃ / うぅ / えぇ / おぉ. Small vowels are more commonly seen written in Katakana and are generally used for non-Japanese words to form foreign pronunciations; these are known as diphthongs. You'll get use to them when and if they appear, here are a few common ones:

Sometimes, small vowels may appear in Hiragana instead of Katakana; these are used to express emphasis on vowel endings in spoken text, for example ですぅ if you want to indicate that the "u" in "desu" should be sounded. A group of the same vowels can be used just like in English: ああぁぁぁぁ〜 (Aghaaaa~) or as in surprise えぇぇぇぇぇっ. (Eeeeee~) as in Whaaaaaaaa~(t)? (what?).

Additional Notes

Useful Resources

How to pronounce hiragana, ひらがな, aiueo, あいうえお〜わをん

Speak Japanese Naturally

Learn All Hiragana | Stroke Order | Japanese Pronunciation

Plain Japanese

How to Read and Write Hiragana Alphabet | Learn Japanese for Beginners

Japanese Calligrapher Takumi