Tag Archives: Hiragana

Writing Hiragana – お

2 Dec

“O” OR “お” SAYS “long o sound as in potato”
3 STROKES 

First, Starting on the upper left, make a medium horizontal line. 

o1

Second, starting a little bit above stroke one, make a vertical line down. Then (WITHOUT PICKING UP YOUR PEN) make a small loop to the left, cross back over the line and make a large curved line to the right.  

o2

Notice that the line and loop are not centered, they are actually a little bit to the left of the character box.  You can see in the picture below that the big curve  (4) actually extends pretty far to the right – past the end of Stroke (1).

O4.png

The Third stroke belongs in the upper right of the character. Starting on the left, make a very small sloped line downwards. 

eh-1

FINAL

EXAMPLES (FROM TOP 1000 JAPANESE WORDS)

  • おもい (Omoi) = Heavy
  • おい (Oi) = Nephew
  • おやつ (Oyatsu) = Snack
  • おちゃ (Ocha) = Green Tea

Writing Hiragana – え

30 Nov

“E” OR “え” SAYS “short e sound as in egg”
2 STROKES 

The First stroke belongs in the upper middle of the character. Starting on the left, make a very small sloped line downwards. 

eh-1

Sometimes, you might see this line with a small side-stroke back towards the left. These characters were originally written with a brush, and this was just a small pull sideways that gave it flair. It shouldn’t be too deliberate – more a fast pull than anything.

eh-2

Second, below the first line and without picking up your pen! Start by making a sloping-upwards line. Then pull your pen down quickly in a slight diagonal. Drag it back up again about 1/2 way. Then pull off into a sloping “s” shape.

Kind of like a slanted “h” with a fancy top and a hooked end

eh-3

Pay attention to proportions – note that Step 2 ends up close to where Step 1 started. Step 3 pulls off at close to where Step 1 started.  The hook on Step 4 goes below Step 2. 

Eh 7.png

Final Version of This Part: 
eh-4

FINAL

EXAMPLES (FROM TOP 1000 JAPANESE WORDS)

  • かえる (Kaeru) = Frog
  • いえ (Ie) = House / Home
  • えんぴつ (Enpitsu) = Pencil

Writing Hiragana – い

26 Nov

“I” OR “い” SAYS “EE”
2 STROKES 

The first stroke looks a little like a fish hook (but not quite written that way). Make a slightly curved vertical line down, then (without picking up your pen) give it a small up-stroke. These characters were originally written with a brush, and this was just a small pull upwards that gave it flair. It shouldn’t be too deliberate – more a fast pull than anything.

i1

Second, on the right – make a vertical line downwards slightly curved to the left.

i2FINAL

i3

EXAMPLES (FROM TOP 1000 JAPANESE WORDS)

  • しかい (Shikai) = Dentist
  • せんせい (Sensei) = Teacher
  • い (i) = Stomach

Writing Hiragana – あ

23 Nov

If you want to live, work, or study in Japan, it’s almost required that you start to learn how to write Hiragana. If I wanted to just travel to Japan for a short time, I didn’t need to bother. But if I wanted to be fluent or for extended trips, I need to be able to write the Characters. Many foreigners simply learn how to read Hiragana but are never taught how to write it.  They just kind of guess how to write the letters.  However, if you write the character in the wrong way, it sometimes isn’t clear. Just like English handwriting – if you don’t form your letters correctly, sometimes it’s hard to read. 

So without further ado, here is the first Hiragana Letter and how to write it!

“A” or “あ” says “ah”
3 STROKES 

First, make a high, short, slightly slanted horiztonal line.

ah-1

Second, make a slightly curved vertical line downwards.

ah-2

Third make a loopy spiral like a “fish”

ah-3

FINAL

ah-4

EXAMPLES (From Top 1000 Japanese Words)

  • あさ(Asa) = Morning
  • あお(Ao) = Blue
  • あう (Au) = To Interview

Hiragana

28 Oct

Japanese has three separate writing systems – Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Their usage depends largely on the origin of the word. Kanji are the Sino-Japanese words that descend from China and use the simplified Chinese characters. Katakana incorporates many other foreign words, and not just English words! Then Hiragana is the predominant written form for everything else. Hiragana is by far the most common written form, although both Katakana and Kanji will be intermixed in most sentences.  So Hiragana is the first one usually taught to new Japanese students. Thankfully, it is easier to write and remember than the Kanji, having been simplified a lot time ago. So although it might take some time to memorize this many characters, it shouldn’t be too hard to learn!

Hiragana is read phonetically, and most of the letters can be replicated in English. Each “character” represents a sound, with all but one (‘ん’ ‘N’) including a vowel sound. There are 71 separate sounds but only 46 characters in total – one single consonant, five vowels, and forty combination sounds. 

PRONUNCIATION RULES

  1. ( ゛) = Dakuten, put on the top right of the character. Shows that a character is changing from unvoiced (き is ki) to voiced (ぎ is gi) 
  2. は (ha) is said as (wa) when it comes by itself or is after the topic of the sentence. For example, watashi wa (I am) is spelled 私は.
  3. The characters や (ya), よ (yo), and ゆ (yu) can be added to a character that ends in the (i) sound. If so, the (i) is silent. For example, if ぎ (gi) is added to や (ya), it will be pronounced as ぎや (gya).

  4. Doubled vowels (as in おにいさん | oni’isan | big brother) are demonstrated by adding an extra vowel. に (Ni) is lengthened by adding the extra い (i) to form ni’i.  For the doubled vowel (o), either う or お might be added – it depends on the word.

  5. Doubled consonants (as in にっぽん | Nippon) are created by adding a ‘small’ (Tsu) or っ right before the consonant. It is actually smaller in size than the character Tsu (つっ – see the difference).  You don’t actually pronounce the small Tsu. For example, in Japanese, ‘begging’ would be written ‘beっging.’

  6. The only exception are the doubled -n characters (na, ni, no, nu, ne). They are doubled by adding ん (an extra n) before the n.

  7. On the other hand っ (‘small tsu) can also be added at the end of a word to suggest stronger emotions. Rather like a !.  However, when they do that, it seems to often suggest stronger emotions that are not quite strong enough for a (!).  For example, if I’m talking to a child, “you’re so silly っ” might be used versus “you’re such an idiot!” to someone who just caused a lot of trouble by doing something stupid. In that case, it is also no pronounced.

  8. If the vowels (i) and (u) are in between (k), (s), (t), (p), (h) or if the come after one of those at the end of a sentence, then the (i) or (u) may be silent.  For example, ですね (desu ne) is often said (des ne). 
  9. If へ (he) comes after a location, the (h) is silent and it says (e).

  10. The Japanese (r) is similar to that of China and Korea. Put your tongue in the (L) position but say (R).  If you listen, it comes out a little differently from the English (r) sound. 

CHARACTERS

あ (a) え (e) い (i) お (o) う (u)
だ (da) で (de) ぢ (ji) ど (do) づ (zu)
た (ta) て (te) ち (chi) と (to) つ (tsu)
が (ga) げ (ge) ぎ (gi) ご (go) ぐ (gu)
は (ha) へ (he) ひ (hi) ほ (ho) ふ (fu)
ば (ba) べ (be) び (bi) ぼ (bo) ぶ (bu)
ぱ (pa) ぺ (pe) ぴ (pi) ぽ (po) ぺ (pu)
か (ka) け (ke) き (ki) こ (ko) く (ku)
ま (ma) め (me) み (mi) も (mo) む (mu)
ん (n)
な (na) ね (ne) に (ni) の (no) ぬ (nu)
ら (ra) れ (re) り (ri) ろ (ro) る (ru)
さ (sa) せ (se) し (shi) そ (so) す (su)
ざ (za) ぜ (ze) じ (ji) ぞ (zo) ず (zu)
わ (wa) を (wo)
や (ya) よ (yo) ゆ (yu)

-Y COMBOS

 Note the lack of a (y) in the sh-, ch-, and j- combos.

びゃ (bya) びょ (byo) びゅ (byu)
ぴゃ (pya) ぴょ (pyo) ぴゅ (pyu)
ひゃ (hya) ひょ (hyo) ひゅ (hyu)
ぎゃ (gya) ぎょ (gyo) ぎゅ (gyu)
きゃ (kya) きょ (kyo) きゅ (kyu)
にゃ (nya) にょ (nyo) にゅ (nyu)
みゃ (mya) みょ (myo) みゅ (myu)
りゃ (rya) りょ (ryo) りゅ (ryu)
しゃ (sha) しょ (sho) しゅ (shu)
じゃ (ja) じょ (jo) じゅ (ju)
ちゃ (cha) ちょ (cho) ちゅ (chu)
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