Kana Chart

The two Japanese kana scripts — hiragana and katakana — each have 46 basic characters. Switch between them in the chart, show or hide romaji, include the voiced (dakuten) and combination sounds, and then test yourself with the built-in quiz. Tap a character to hear it if your device has a Japanese voice installed.

Hiragana and katakana: what is the difference?

Japanese is written with three scripts. Hiragana is the rounded, flowing script used for grammatical endings, particles and native words without kanji, and it is the first script children and learners study. Katakana is the angular script used mainly for words borrowed from other languages (コーヒー, kōhī, coffee), foreign names, onomatopoeia and emphasis, much like italics. Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese that carry meaning. Both kana scripts represent the same set of sounds, so learning one makes the other much easier.

The basic chart

Read the chart row by row: each row starts with a consonant, combined with the five vowels a, i, u, e, o. A few sounds are irregular — shi, chi, tsu and fu — and ん (n) is the only kana that stands for a consonant on its own.

Voiced sounds: dakuten and handakuten

Two small marks change the consonant of a kana. The dakuten (゛, two short strokes) voices it: か ka becomes が ga, さ sa becomes ざ za, た ta becomes だ da, and は ha becomes ば ba. The handakuten (゜, a small circle) turns the h-row into p: は ha becomes ぱ pa. There are 25 of these variants in each script. ぢ and づ sound the same as じ and ず in modern standard Japanese and are much less common.

Combination sounds (yōon)

Adding a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ after a kana ending in i creates a combined sound: き ki + ゃ ya = きゃ kya, し shi + ょ yo = しょ sho, ち chi + ゅ yu = ちゅ chu. These combinations are written with the small kana half-size and slightly lower. There are 33 common combinations in each script. A small っ (tsu) before a consonant doubles it, as in きって kitte (stamp), and in katakana a long vowel is shown with a dash ー.

Pronunciation tips

• Japanese vowels are short and pure: a as in “father”, i as in “machine”, u as in “food” but with less lip rounding, e as in “bet”, o as in “order”.
• Every kana is roughly one beat (mora) long; keep the rhythm even.
• ら-row sounds are between English r, l and d — a quick tap of the tongue.
• ふ fu is softer than English f: blow gently with rounded lips.
• ん changes slightly depending on the next sound — m before b, p and m, for example.
• Long vowels matter: おばさん obasan (aunt) and おばあさん obāsan (grandmother) are different words.

How to learn kana fast

1. Learn hiragana first, a row or two a day; most learners know all 46 in one to two weeks.
2. Say each sound aloud as you write it.
3. Use mnemonics — pictures that link the shape to the sound, such as く ku looking like a bird’s beak going “coo”.
4. Quiz yourself daily with the chart’s quiz, mixing old and new rows.
5. Add dakuten and combinations once the basic chart is automatic.
6. Move to katakana and practise with loanwords you already know: テレビ terebi, パン pan, ホテル hoteru.
7. Read real text — children’s books, signs, menus — as soon as possible.

Writing tips and stroke order

Stroke order matters for neat, recognisable handwriting. Most kana follow general rules: top to bottom, left to right, horizontal strokes before vertical strokes that cross them. Pay attention to stroke endings — some stop, some flick and some fade out. Look-alike pairs such as シ shi and ツ tsu, or ソ so and ン n, are distinguished by stroke direction: shi and n are written upward from the lower left, tsu and so are written downward. The printable practice sheets include tracing rows and blank practice squares.

Commonly confused kana

Worked example: reading a word

Take the katakana word アイスクリーム. Using the chart: ア a, イ i, ス su, ク ku, リ ri, ー long vowel, ム mu — aisukurīmu, “ice cream”. The final u in su and mu is often barely pronounced. Try the hiragana word ありがとう: あ a, り ri, が ga (か with dakuten), と to, う u — arigatō, “thank you”, where とう is read as a long tō.

Privacy and audio

The chart and quiz run entirely in your browser. Tap-to-hear uses your device’s built-in speech voices; if no Japanese voice is installed, no sound will play. Nothing is recorded, stored or uploaded.