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0:00
want to speak real Japanese from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at japanesepod101.com hi everyone I'm Raisa welcome to basic Japanese
0:15
writing in this series I'm going to teach you how to master the Japanese alphabet in the fastest easiest and most fun way did you know written Japanese actually uses three different Scripts hiana kak and Ki hiragana is the basic Japanese alphabet contrary to the English alphabet however each character represents one Sy sound so every time you see one specific character you know that it will always sound the same way the second script used in Japanese is Katakana each Katakana character
0:52
represents the same syllable as it hilana counterpart however it is written a bit differently and is used mostly for foreign words these two make up the Japanese alphabet and they will be the focus of this series on the other hand Kani characters represent a word or a concept and unlike kagana and Katakana there are thousands of them plus there are also different leadings for each of them this makes Kani characters harder to master however it's important to learn them as well because they are
1:27
essential in understanding Japanese to learn more about kanji check out our kanji series at Japanese Port 101.com which I also host with Alicia in this first lesson we will be diving into hilana and you'll be learning your first five characters hiragana characters are the most common of the three scripts because it's used to write functional words like grammatical particles and are also commonly found at the end of adjectives and and verbs there are also a lots of
2:02
vers that are more commonly written in hiragana rather than kanji technically hiragana characters could also be used to substitute Kani characters that you don't know how to write but don't use this as an excuse not to learn Kani there are 46 sagana characters and they are commonly arranged in this order take note that when Japanese is written vertically you read it from right to left so we'll be starting with this column these five characters are the five vowel
2:35
sounds in Japanese the rest of the characters are made up of a consonant sound and one of these vow sounds except for the N character okay are you ready to learn your first hilana here we go this is the hilana
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character to remember this Cala try comparing it it with an apple do you see
3:06
it next up is the hiragana
3:13
character think of this character as two eyes side by side
3:21
e you can actually see E A Lot in writing as it acts like a suffix to most adjectives in Japanese the third one is the
3:37
hiana to remember this character imagine a boxer getting punched in the stomach
3:46
saying this is the H
3:53
character it looks like an energetic ninja whoosh now our final character for this lesson
4:09
theana to remember o try to think of it as a
4:17
UFO take a look at these two characters do you remember this character on the left that's right it's the hiragana H in order to differentiate hiragana or o from a just remember that o has a floating stroke on the side o is also often used in writing but unlike it or is commonly found at the beginning of words it is used to imply politeness let's see all the characters again a e u e o now let's riew what you've learned I'll show you a character or word and give your time to say them
5:06
ready remember the energetic
5:13
ninja believe it or not it's actually a word e means
5:21
stomach which one is
5:26
the it's the one that looks like an and doesn't have a flirting stroke this one I it means
5:43
love this one means up or
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above means
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no a this means blue great job do you remember when I said hiragana characters I used to spell out the pronunciation of a Kani they are placed above or beside Ai and written smaller this use of hilana is called fana okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you've learned the five hilag virus a e u e n o you've now mastered your first five Cals hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
6:45
alphabet you've learned these five hilana characters from the previous lesson in this lesson you learn five new characters and 10 new sounds how is that possible stay tuned to find out the first hilana character for this lesson is C cup need help remembering this one just imagine it as a blade cutting a
7:19
stick cut is actually aana that is used a lot since it is the question marking particle in Japanese so if you see a sentence ending in c it is most probably a question the hiragana also has another reading once we add this Mark this Mark is called D or t it is made up of two lines that look like a quotation mark symbol and it's put on the upper right corner of the character the D makes the consonant of the syllable of voice so C with a D will be pronounced as G voicing a consonant
8:04
simply means that you create a vibration in your vocal cord when you say it g g notice the difference G okay next up is
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theana key looks like a key just like the hilana all of the characters in this column can be aled by a d k with a d is pronounced as g k g k the third one is the
8:53
hilana to remember this calor think of it as a cuckoo speak cucko
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let's add a d to C as well how do you think it will sound like it's pronounced
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as this is the hiragana
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character K looks like a cake doesn't it just just like the first three characters K can be modified by a DCT K with a DCT is pronounced as
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K and our final character for this lesson is
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theana imagine this character as two koi fish swimming around each other now can you go and say what Co sounds like with a duct it will be go go go let's see all the characters again k g k g co go now let's give you what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them
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ready K just like a key remember c c actually means a mosquito do you remember this one it's it I
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co this means to write k k means Shadow K this means to listen try not to mix this up with
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Kaku is voice k k means key don't forget
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it this means memory make sure not to forget this one as well aa aa is movie
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this means big great job I am wondering how do I identify between a duct Mark and a quotation mark don't worry in Japanese we use corner brackets to signify quotes and titles instead of quotation marks okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learned C and g k and G C and G K and G and Co and go you've now mastered 10 characters and 15 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and
12:49
most fun way to master the Japanese
12:54
alphabet you've learned this tagana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new characters and again 10 new sounds the first hiragana character for this lesson is s sa this one looks like a s sign face do you notice that sa and K look similar a good tip to remember the difference is that s is so sad that it gets one less line all of the characters in this column can also be altered by a zaken can you try and guess what the new sound will be it will be Z do you notice
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the difference z z okay next up is the hiragana Cal sh sh
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it looks like a fishing hook let's add a DCT to sh how do you think it will sound like now did you think it was Z actually she with a DCT is pronounced as G sh
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G the third one is theana s
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s s looks like a s p Stoll in a glass let's add a du then to sue as well what do you think it will sound like it's pronounced
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as this is the hiana character set set imagine set as a m facing sideways it's about to say something let's modify set with a dent it is now pronounced as z z z and our final character for this lesson is the so so to remember so just imagine a zigzag sewing
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Stitch now can you go and say what so sounds like with a duct it will be zo so so let's see all the characters again sa Z she
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now let's review what you've learned I'll show you a character or group of characters and give you time to say them
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ready set which one is
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theana it's this this one with one less horizontal
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line Z the word Z actually means diagram did you remember this one it's O this one is K Sushi is the famous Japanese dish J this means
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accident SK ski means
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like Sak this means to
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bloom Z zo is
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elephant okashi this means sweets
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means
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alcohol Sao it means
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last soo soo means imagination try saying this long
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one is a high school student great job do you want to get better at pronunciation try listening to Japanese blogs and podcasts if you don't know where to look we have a huge liely at Japanese Port 101.com remember nemonic help you associate English words with the characters so they do not necessarily teach you the right pronunciation okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learned s and Z she and Su and and z and so and
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so you've now mastered 15 characters and 25 Japanese syllable sounds did you know that Japanese has a word for the day after tomorrow you'll get to know it in the next lesson when we tackle the T column before you go practice writing the following words on your own and to learn more Japanese go to Japanese Port 101.com hey guys what's your number one reason for learning a language we asked our other listeners this question and compiled a list from their answers you
19:17
might be surprised to hear what a few of them said check out the list in the link below you'll even learn a little Japanese while you're at it see see you in the next lesson mat hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
19:44
alphabet you've learned these 15 hilana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new characters 10 new syllable sounds and an extra character function curious stay tuned to learn all about them the first hilana character for this lesson is t t t actually looks like a t like a small letter T N A all of the hiragana in this column can be aled by DCT as well can you guess what the new sound will be after adding a DCT to TP it will be da T da da okay next up is the hiragana
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character ch ch does a chi remind you of another character it looks like the mirror image of sa doesn't it just think of chi as a cheer reader angry at s for copying her now let's add a duct to CH how do you think it will sound like now is it D actually CH with a is pronounced as G it's just like a sh with a
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G the third hiana for this lesson
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is this hiragana is very easy to remember s looks like a tsunami wave let's add the duct to two as well how do you think it will sound like it's actually pronounced as it's similar to S with a d listen
21:55
carefully actually T has a special version that look looks like this and it's called CH literally small it's actually just the smaller size to so what do we use it for the CH side is used to prolong the consonant after it take a look at the following examples and listen to how I say
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them to compare here are some words without
22:33
it now listen as I say them side by
22:46
side when found at the end of the word that CH acts like a Gro stop for example ah next is aana character
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looks like a dog
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ta let's modify t with a d it is now pronounced
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as our final character for this lesson is theana to to to looks like a
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tornado what does to sound like with the DCT to with a DCT is pronounced do to do to do let's see all the characters again T
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da
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to now let's review what you've learned I'll show you a character or a group of characters and give you time to say them
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ready as a word actually means
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hand this is z which one is the hiragana
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it's this one the one that looks like the angry Chia
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leader
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go this means shoes cheu cheu is mop
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means
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Apprentice T this means to
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stand to to means
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far it means to continue if you've ever watch the Japanese TV dramas or anime I think you have seen this one it means
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which means University literally it means big
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school this means The Day After
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Tomorrow means to calm down great job you might ask if CH and she sound very similar with the ductan then how will I know which one to use most of the time we use g g is very rarely used in Japanese it is only used for compound Ki which have ch as their original sound for example blood in Japanese is CH but nose bleed becomes Han okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learn T and and G
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and and and you've now mastered 20 characters and 35 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese alphabet [Music] you've learned these 20 hiragana characters in the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new hilana characters the first hilana character for this lesson is n n think of Na as a complicated
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nut are you confused between T and na just remember that na looks more complicated so it gets mixed up in a nut also remember that the left side of T is taller do you remember that is used as the suffix for most adjectives these are called e adjectives the other kind of adjectives are the n adjectives this use theana as the particle to connect two nouns okay next up is the hiragana
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character KN looks like a knee easy to remember
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right the third one is the
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hiana to remember this character think of a pair of Chopsticks holding a bunch of noodles this is
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the think of net as a snail hiding behind a nail net looks similar to n doesn't it well just remember that you need a pair of Chopsticks to be able to hold your noodles so n has two lines sticking out on top top of the curve and net just has one and our final character for this lesson is the hiragana no no it's easy to remember this one it's like a no sign no is also widely used hilana it is the particle used to denote possession let's see all the characters again now
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now let's riew what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them
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ready KN just like a knee remember which one is the H top it's this one it does look like a top doesn't it G this also means letter remember this one it's set C it's a
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c this means what what N means what this means
30:35
dog is
30:40
cat ni means
30:45
rainbow means
30:51
money it refers to your upper
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back Nat is fermented soybeans it's known to be very smelly but it's very good for
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you means please as a noun it also means a request great job are you wondering why there's no D version of n this is because the nend sound is already voiced try to feel your throat m there's a vibration right okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learn the hilana
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characters and no you've now mastered 25 characters and 40 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese alphabet [Music] you've learned these 25 hiana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new colors and 16 new sounds I promise it will be easy so stay tuned to learn all about them the first hilana character for this lesson is h h to remember ha imagine this part is a
32:31
capital letter H and then there's a small a in front of it h h might look similar to K so it may be confusing to tell the difference between them remember that ha has a hoop did you miss the Duan last lesson well this column can be modified by adding a Zan as well can you can you guess what the new sound will be after adding a duct to ha it will be B ha ba ha but wait there's one more Mark that can modify the H column it's the H or Mar mark it looks like a small circle
33:22
and it's placed in the same position as the D then this Mark makes the consonant of the syllable Prive and it's Unique to this column H with a hand is pronounced ha ha p a consonant explosive when there's a big breast of air coming out of your mouth when you say it P P try to feel the difference
33:56
h h is also a popular hilana it's a topic marking particle in Japanese so the word or phrase that comes before it is the topic of the sentence but be careful ha is pronounced differently when it's used as a topic marking particle it will be pronounced as what for
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example many speakers actually find it hard to read this last example if it's written just in hilana this is where Kani is very useful knowing which part is a word and which part is a particle makes it easy to read Japanese okay next up is the
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hilana can you see a smiling mouth going he he he he he now let's add a DCT to he he with a DCT is pronounced as be he be he be and how will it sound like with a h it's going to
35:19
be he the third hiana for this lesson is it's not who or who but somewhere in between who who it's a sound unique to Japanese so let's remember it with something unique to Japan Mount Fuji let's try adding a duct to Fu as well how do you think it will sound it's pronounced as B listen carefully H H now let's try it with a hak then it becomes p p p next is the hiragana
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character it looks like it's pointing up to heaven where the sky is let's modify he with a DCT it's now pronounced as be
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he and when he is modified with a hand it will be pronounced
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as he is the particle used to indicate the place towards which something is moving moving just like ha he also changes pronunciation when used as a particle in this case we pronounce it as just like the listen to some
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examples our final character for this lesson is
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the try by imagining a horse's face with its man on the left side to remember this character does ho remind you of ha they both have a hoop so how do you remember them well H has two horizontal lines and ha only has one so this means ha has only half the lines and H has the whole lot what does H sound like with the with a DCT is pronounced b b b and with a hand it will be po po po let's see all calaes again H or if it's used as a
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particle he p h he or if it is used as a
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particle now let's give you what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them
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ready remember that is like Mount
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Fuji B it has the handon which makes it plosive so it's pet now remember it's a complicated nut right which one is the
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hiana it's this one with the hoop and H the horizontal lines as H
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go Han this means
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flower it's your
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knee this could be Hashi meaning Chopsticks or Hashi which means means
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brid hush means
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strange Hanabi this is Japanese for fireworks literally it means firef
40:17
flowers this means
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complicated is a drawer
40:30
it means perfectionist great job as you learn more characters you notice that some of them look similar try making a chart of your own grouping similar characters and list down a unique feature you can find for each so that when you see it you can identify that specific character easily okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learn ha B and P he B and P and P and and and po you've now mastered 30 Cales and 56 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone
41:26
welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
41:35
alphabet you've learned these 30 hilana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new hiragana characters the first hiragana character for this lesson is ma ma try looking at it as a a man in a mask and you remember
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ma okay next up is Thea
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me think of it as the musical
42:20
note the third one is
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theana moo looks like a cow and what do Cows say
42:36
Moo this is the hiana
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character does Matt remind you of this character the one where the Chopsticks are holding some noodles but look this part is now missing this means that the Chopsticks dropped some noodles and made a
43:01
mess and our final character for this lesson is
43:10
the to remember more just imagine it as a monitor lizard this part is its huge long tail Ma and mo might be confusing because they look similar but just remember that Ma is the one with the mouth let's see all the characters again
43:39
ma now let's give you what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them
43:51
ready me me actually means I
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M which one is
44:08
aana it's this one holding more
44:19
noodles just like a
44:26
tunami s remember not to mistake it for CH Mai this means town or city this could be a which means rain a which means
44:50
candy atama it's an important part of your body it means head this is kimono it literally means something you wear Tam make it it means sign my my means everyday speaking of which I hope you're practicing every day trying saying this long one was it difficult yes it is Musashi means difficult great job do you have other nemonic suggestions to make remembering hiana easier share them in the comments below okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this
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lesson you learned hiragana characters Ma and mo you you've now mastered 35 characters and 61 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
46:13
alphabet you've learned these 35 hiragana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn five new hilana characters the first hilana character for this this lesson is l l think of L as a rabbit sitting on its hind legs is it hard to tell between LA and Chi just remember that Chi has the top part crossing over okay next up is the hilana
46:55
color Le looks like a river easy to remember right e and Le look very similar especially when L one way to remember the difference is that the right stroke of re is longer and it flows like a river the third one is the
47:24
hiragana to remember this Cal think of it as a hand holding a
47:32
ruby this is the
47:40
hilana think of le as a reindeer looking up and our final Cal for this lesson
47:55
is remember L it looks very similar right but where's the ruby the hand was holding it's gone now so you got robed let's see all the characters
48:19
again now let's give you what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them ready
48:36
which one is
48:40
theana it's this one with the flowing last stroke just like a river n remember not to confuse it
48:54
with so
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remember the Cuckoo's beak sh Sal this means
49:17
monkey har it means sunny or clear
49:25
weather Lau means convenient or
49:34
comfortable ofo means bath and it's an important part of Japanese
49:43
culture this means medicine on on is a famous Japanese dish and you eat it with just your hands this means stuffed toy great job are there still other similar letters you are confused about post them in the comments and we'll try to help you out okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you
50:18
learned and please note that we skipped the Y column this time so that we could discuss all the Japanese graphs in the next lesson you've now mastered 40 characters and 66 Japanese syllable sounds hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the fastest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
50:45
alphabet you've learned these 40 hilana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn three new characters and 33 new C sounds yes 33 11 * 3 33 new sounds got to learn them all the first hilana character for this lesson is y y yeah actually looks like a yuck the two horns are protruding on
51:23
Top This is the hilana Cala you you you there's a magical way to remember you just think of a
51:38
unicorn you is also a popular H but not because of how it's used in a sentence but because it is used as a mark for onent or hot spring bath you actually stands for o meaning hot water our refiner can leure for this lesson is theana Yo Yo to remember Y imagine a yoyo dangling from a
52:14
finger there's another set of syllables in Japanese which is formed by adding the Y U or your sound to a consonant plus an e sound this time the the y u and your characters are written smaller these are the Japanese diagraphs called y even though they look longer they are still the same length in syllables as the previous characters that you've
52:49
learned
52:55
Sha
53:19
technically you could also make a diagraph with G but it's not in use anymore one thing to note is that you need to be careful when writing or pronouncing them they are written smaller and they are pronounced by gliding to the Y sound and not pronouncing the e sound doing it otherwise might get you a completely different word here's an example do means Dragon but do means reason another one is co meaning today however when you pronounce the the e sound and say k it means handy or
54:02
skilled let's see all the characters again yo and the
54:25
diagraphs
54:44
now let's give you what you've learned I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them
54:54
ready y
55:02
you the magical
55:07
unicorn yeah no ah remember the Apple she you it means means dream Yama Yama is
55:35
Mountain y this means
55:43
cheapi means cooking are you good at it K it means
55:54
company Judo Judo is the national sports of
56:02
Japan this means homework you should do it being it means Hospital you don't want to confuse it with bin meaning hairdresser great job do you like listening to Japanese songs try finding the lyrics in Japanese with fana online and practice your h by reading them and eventually singing them okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learned the hilana characters ya Yu and yo and all Japanese diagraphs you've now mastered 43
56:47
characters in 99 Japanese syllable sounds wow hi everyone welcome to basic Japanese writing the firstest easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese
57:02
alphabet you have learned these 43 hilana characters from the previous lessons in this lesson you learn three new characters and just two new sounds yes you've learned one of them before stay tuned to find out which one the first hilana character for this lesson is what what do you remember that the hilana ha is pronounced as what if it's a particle well the W sound is actually signified by this character as
57:42
well to remember what think of it as a white
57:49
swine many people have a hard time remembering NE and because left Hales look the same hopefully our neonics can come to the rescue remember net is the snail with a spiral in its shell there is a reindeer looking up in the sky and what is a white swan floating on the water this is the hilana character what it is also commonly said as o o try to think of w as a crack in the
58:33
wall what is a very distinct character it is never used in a word but instead it functions as the object marking particle so whenever you say this it means that the word before it is the object of the sentence for example this means I ate an apple the object of the verb or at is lingo or apple and it's the one that comes before W our final character for this lesson is
59:15
the this one's easy it looks like an italized
59:24
N is also special because you can never start a word with it it could only be found in the middle or at the end of words one more thing that's special about is that its pronunciation varies a bit depending on the syllable that comes after it it can sometimes have an N sound when it comes before a b or P sound for example com and compai and sometimes it can have a n sound when it comes before a g sound like in hangaku let's see all the characters again or o and finally now let's riew what you've
1:00:08
learned I'll show you a character or a word and give your time to say them
1:00:17
ready what it looks like a crack in the wall right yo
1:00:32
which one is theana what it's this
1:00:45
one remember it's not sh it's sh Ka this means River n it means Circle it's also the Japanese currency yen in Japanese we call it
1:01:09
n is I or
1:01:16
me this means music shim it's a newspaper since after comes we pronounce it
1:01:34
as means
1:01:39
mother this means to drink
1:01:46
water this means to eat vegetables great job did you know there used to be hiragana characters for we and we however just like how W is pronounced interchangeably as o we and we was also pronounced as the vows i and e so they become obsolete you never know but maybe what might become obsolete in the future as well okay let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned in this lesson you learned the hilag characters w w and you've now mastered all 46 characters and all 101 Japanese cable
1:02:38
Sounds here are the 46 sagana galaxies they are used mainly for Japanese words and as grammatical particles these are the five vowel sounds and the rest are a combination of a consonant and a vowel sound except for this is the D or 10 Mark that makes the consonant of the syllable voice it can modify the characters under the k s t and H columns on the other hand this is the handen or Maru Mark and it's exclusively used for the h column it makes the consonant sound posive
1:03:17
Japanese diagraphs are formed by adding a small Y U or yo to a consonant plus an e they are pronounced by gliding to the Y sound and not pronouncing the E pronunciation of hilana characters is always the same except for these characters with originate pronunciations ha is pronounced W when it's used as the topic marking particle he is pronounced E when it's used as a preposition W is actually more commonly pronounced as o and can sometimes be pronounced n or depending on the
1:04:00
syllable that comes after it congratulations you now know all the syllable sounds native to Japanese but wait we are not done yet did you know that around 10% of Japanese is made of long words from English you will already know many Japanese words just by learning the long words in Katakana so you definitely don't want to miss out on them [Music]
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