Hiragana ま–ん, plus dakuten and handakuten

This lesson completes the basic hiragana chart. You will learn the last 16 characters, and then two small marks that let you write 25 more sounds. After this lesson you can read any word written in basic hiragana.

row	a	i	u	e	o
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 o
n	ん n

The M row: ま み む め も

• ま (ma) — 3 strokes: two horizontal lines, then a vertical line that crosses them and ends in a loop.
• み (mi) — 2 strokes: a stroke that goes right, slants down to the left and loops round to the right, then a short stroke that crosses its tail.
• む (mu) — 3 strokes: a horizontal line, a vertical line that makes a loop and swings out to the right, then a small dash at the top right.
• め (me) — 2 strokes: a short slanted stroke, then a long stroke that crosses it and curls round — like ぬ without the final loop.
• も (mo) — 3 strokes: a curved vertical stroke that ends with a hook to the right, then two short horizontal lines that cross it.

The Y row: や ゆ よ

The y row has only three characters. Old forms for “yi” and “ye” are no longer used.

• や (ya) — 3 strokes: a curved stroke that opens downwards, a small dash, then a long slanted stroke that crosses the first one.
• ゆ (yu) — 2 strokes: a stroke that goes down and loops up and round, then a vertical line through the middle that curves to the left at the bottom.
• よ (yo) — 2 strokes: a short horizontal line on the right, then a vertical line that ends in a loop.

The R row: ら り る れ ろ

The Japanese r is a light tap of the tongue just behind the top teeth. It sounds somewhere between an English “r”, “l” and “d”. Do not roll it and do not curl your tongue back.

• ら (ra) — 2 strokes: a small dash at the top, then a stroke that goes down and curves round to the left.
• り (ri) — 2 strokes: a short left stroke with a flick, then a longer right stroke that curves down. Some printed fonts show it as 1 stroke, joined at the top.
• る (ru) — 1 stroke: a zigzag that ends in a small loop at the bottom.
• れ (re) — 2 strokes: a vertical line, then a stroke that zigzags across it and ends with an open tail that curves up.
• ろ (ro) — 1 stroke: like る, but without the loop.

The last three: わ, を and ん

• わ (wa) — 2 strokes: a vertical line, then a zigzag stroke that ends in a big round curve with no loop.
• を (o) — 3 strokes: a short horizontal line, a zigzag stroke, then a curve at the bottom. It is only used as the object particle, as in みずをのみます (mizu o nomimasu, “I drink water”). In standard Japanese it sounds exactly like お.
• ん (n) — 1 stroke, a little like a handwritten “h”. It is a sound on its own, and Japanese words practically never start with it. Its sound changes slightly depending on the next sound, but Hepburn romaji always writes n: さんぽ sanpo.

Dakuten and handakuten

Two small marks at the top right of a character change its sound:

• Dakuten ゛ (also called tenten, “two dots”): k → g, s → z, t → d, h → b.
• Handakuten ゜ (also called maru, “circle”): only on the h row, h → p.

row	a	i	u	e	o
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

じ and ぢ are both read ji, and ず and づ are both read zu. In most words you will see じ and ず. ぢ and づ appear in only a few words, for example つづく (tsuzuku, to continue).

Similar-looking characters

• ぬ (nu) and め (me): ぬ ends with a loop, め does not.
• ね (ne), れ (re) and わ (wa): all start with a vertical line. ね ends with a loop, れ with an open tail that curves up, わ with a big round curve.
• る (ru) and ろ (ro): る has a loop at the bottom, ろ does not.
• は (ha), ほ (ho) and ま (ma): ま has no vertical line on the left.
• い (i) and り (ri): the right stroke of り is much longer and curves down.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the dakuten. かき (kaki, persimmon) and かぎ (kagi, key) are different words.
• Mixing up the two marks: ば is ba, ぱ is pa.
• Pronouncing the r row like a strong English “r”.
• Using を inside ordinary words. It is only used as a particle.

Coming next: small っ (a short pause, as in きって kitte, stamp) and small ゃ ゅ ょ (combined sounds, as in きょう kyō, today) work the same way as in katakana and are explained in Lesson 5.

How to practise

• Read the whole hiragana chart aloud from あ to ん once a day.
• Practise the dakuten and handakuten rows by reading pairs: ka–ga, sa–za, ta–da, ha–ba–pa.
• Use the worksheet to write each new character, then the matching and reading exercises.
• Read the vocabulary below with the romaji hidden.