Hiragana, 平仮名

Hiragana, one of the three writing systems in Japanese, contains 46 basic characters. On top of that there are additional characters combined with the 46 basic character, more on that below. In total there are 104 different characters, a simplification for now. There is a very logical but yet different system behind the hiragana "alphabet" compared to the western alphabet.

Content
  » When is hiragana used?
  » Hiragana chart
  » Dakuten/Handakuten
  » Yōon modifiers
  » Double consonant

When is hiragana used?
Hiragana is used for words without a kanji and particles/suffixes. It is similar to the western alphabet in that you can spell out words with it. Therefore you can write a whole sentence in hiragana without involving kanji at all since every kanji can be written with one or several hiraganas. Books written for children don't contain many kanji, these are replaced with hiragana to make it easier to read. The 46 basic hiragana follows the pattern of one consonant (k, s, t, n, h, m, (y), r, w) plus one vowel (a, i, u, e, o) as can be seen below. The only exception is the first line in the table, which consist of only vowels.

Hiragana chart
Each hiragana character represents one syllable, even the ん (n) character.

Table 1

Table 1 shows the 46 basic hiragana. Note that し (shi), ち (chi), つ (tsu) and ふ (fu) are irregular to the pattern of pronounciation.

Dakuten (濁点) and handakuten (半濁点) markers
There are additional hiragana characters, they are formed using the characters from table 1 by adding a dakuten marker (゛) or handakuten marker (゜) added. The ゛ marker changes k, s, t and h to g, z, d and b. The ゜ marker changes h to p.

Table 2

ぢ (ji) and づ (zu) are rarely used in modern Japanese, じ and ず which have the same pronounciation are used instead.

Copyable hiragana chart
	あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
k	か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko
s	さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so
t	た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to
n	な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no
h	は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho
m	ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo
y	や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
r	ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro
w	わ wa				を wo
					ん n

g	が ga	ぎ gi	ぐ gu	げ ge	ご go
z	ざ za	じ ji	ず zu	ぜ ze	ぞ zo
d	だ da	ぢ ji	づ zu	で de	ど do
b	ば ba	び bi	ぶ bu	べ be	ぼ bo
p	ぱ pa	ぴ pi	ぷ pu	ぺ pe	ぽ po

Yōon modifiers, 拗音
Youon hiragana are hiragana with an "i" vowel (ki, shi, chi, ni etc) plus a small version of yu, yu or yo.

Copyable chart of yōon modifiers
	ya	yu	yo
ki	きゃ kya	きゅ kyu	きょ kyo
shi	しゃ sha	しゅ shu	しょ sho
chi	ちゃ cha	ちゅ chu	ちょ cho
ni	にゃ nya	にゅ nyu	にょ nyo
hi	ひゃ hya	ひゅ hyu	ひょ hyo
mi	みゃ mya	みゅ myu	みょ myo
ri	りゃ rya	りゅ ryu	りょ ryo
gi	ぎゃ gya	ぎゅ gyu	ぎょ gyo
ji	じゃ ja	じゅ ju	じょ jo
ji	ぢゃ ja	ぢゅ ju	ぢょ jo
bi	びゃ bya	びゅ byu	びょ byo
pi	ぴゃ pya	ぴゅ pyu	ぴょ pyo
Table 3

Notice that the difference between the two following words is the size of the yo character. The first word is using youon hiragana, contracting the "mi" and "yo" to "myo". In the second word each hiragana represent their own sound:

Myou みょう	- Life
Miyou みよう	- Point of view

Double consonants
Double consonants occur in hiragana as a small っ (tsu). See the difference: っ <-> つ. It's used before the consonant that is doubled, here are some few examples:
かった - katta
はっぱ　- happa

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