Asking Names: Reading Hiragana Vowels and Writing

Let's look into how Japanese is written.

Hiragana

As you learned in Lesson 1, you need to know three different writing systems to be able to write Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Beginning with this lesson you will be learning hiragana which is one of the two syllabaries in Japanese. The other syllabary is katakana. A syllabary is similar to an alphabet because it consists of symbols which represent sounds. The difference is that each symbol in the syllabary represents one syllable. In Japanese a syllable can be composed of a single vowel, a single consonant (only n), or a consonant plus a vowel.

Note: in Japanese, a syllable does not necessarily represent a separate sound, but it's more like a beat in music. If a word has two syllables, it has two beats (even if you are holding one sound for those two beats).

Study these examples.

はい：ha-i (2 syllables = 2 hiragana)
- hai is pronounced hy (what we would call one syllable in English), but is held for two beats: hy-y
どうぞ：do-o-zo (3 syllables = 3 hiragana)
よろしく：yo-ro-shi-ku (4 syllables = 4 hiragana)
こんいちは：ko-n-ni-chi-wa (5 syllables = 5 hiragana)
はじめまして：ha-ji-me-ma-shi-te (6 syllables = 6 hiragana)

Japanese Syllabary

The hiragana syllabary has 46 basic symbols. Unlike English letters, each hiragana always represents the same sound. (There are only a few exceptions, but they are easy to learn.) Look at the chart below, and you will see the same five vowels that you have already learned. Each of these vowels can be a syllable in itself. In the other lines of the chart, you can see how different consonants are added before these five vowels to create the other syllables. Some of the lines at the end of the chart are incomplete. By adding some small marks to some of the symbols below we can represent 25 more sounds (not shown in this chart). In future lessons you will learn more about hiragana and about the other two writing systems used in modern Japanese.

**Japanese Syllabary**
Category	A	I	U	E	O
Vowel	a	i	u	e	o
K	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko
S	sa	shi	su	se	so
T	ta	chi	tsu	te	to
N	na	ni	nu	ne	no
H	ha	hi	fu (hu)	he	ho
M	ma	mi	mu	me	mo
R	ra	ri	ru	re	ro
Y	ya	N/A	yu	N/A	yo
W	wa	N/A	N/A	N/A	wo (o)

That leaves only the last syllable, which is the lone consonant sound -n (we see this is ko-n-ni-chi-wa).

The First Five Hiragana

To begin with, let's learn the five vowels in the hiragana syllabary.

**Vowel Sounds in Hiragana**
Hiragana	あ	い	う	え	お
Roomaji	a	i	u	e	o

Dialogue

During the course you will learn many short dialogues which present conversational Japanese in the context of an everyday situation. Dialogues are an excellent way to practice grammar and vocabulary, to learn practical “chunks” of language, and to develop fluency. Try reading the dialogue out loud (even better if you can find a partner and treat it as an actual dialogue).

Practice Dialogue

A: Hajimemashite.
B: Hajimemashite.
A: A's name desu.
B: B's name desu.
A: Doozo yoroshiku.
B: Doozo yoroshiku.

Reminder: do not use -san (or -kun) with your own name!

Practice Activities: Japanese Writing

Complete the following practice activities before moving ahead.

Syllable Practice

To be able to write in Japanese in hiragana, you need to be able to identify the syllables which make up a Japanese word. In Japanese a syllable can be composed of a single vowel, a single consonant (n is the only single consonant that can be a syllable in Japanese), or a consonant plus a vowel.

For each of the following Japanese words written in Roomaji, select the correct syllables. The correct answer will have the syllables correctly separated by dashes.

Hiragana Vowels

For each of the following vowels, select the correct hiragana.

Short Words Using Hiragana Vowels

For each of the following short words containing hiragana vowels, select the correct roomaji. The meanings of each hiragana word are included, but only as a point of interest.

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Lesson content based on material created by Georgia Public Broadcasting, 1996. All rights reserved. Used with permission.