Sounds & Script
N5Every sound Japanese has, plus both kana alphabets. Start here even if you already know a few words. Sounds come first.
9 lessons · about 62 minutes
Every sound Japanese has, plus both kana alphabets. Start here even if you already know a few words. Sounds come first.
- How Japanese sounds workJapanese has far fewer sounds than English or Hindi. We will cover the whole system in one lesson.6m
- Hiragana: vowels, か and さ rowsThe first fifteen characters: あいうえお, かきくけこ, さしすせそ.8m
- Hiragana: た, な and は rowsFifteen more characters, including the two Japanese sounds that trip everyone up: つ and ふ.8m
- Hiragana: ま, や, ら, わ and んThe last sixteen characters, and the Japanese R, which is not an R at all.8m
- Voicing: dakuten and handakutenTwo small marks turn か into が and は into ぱ. Twenty-five new sounds, no new shapes.5m
- Combined sounds (ようおん)A small ゃ, ゅ or ょ merges into the previous character to make one beat.5m
- Length: long vowels and っIn Japanese, holding a sound longer gives you a different word, so length is worth getting right early.6m
- Katakana: the second alphabetSame 46 sounds, sharper shapes. Katakana is used for foreign words, which means many of them are words you already know.9m
- Reading practicePut the whole script together on real words and your first full sentences.7m