Hiragana 3

In this lesson you will learn to recognize the hiragana characters in the table below.

HiraganaRomanization
や
ya
し
shi
しゃ
sha
じ
ji
じゃ
ja
の
no
ま
ma
り
ri
る
ru

Note the しゃ and じゃ in the table above. These are are called digraphs and consist of a combination of two characters. In a digraph the second character is smaller than normal.

じゃ is one mora long and is romanized as zyanihon-shiki or jahepburn, whereas じや is two mora long and is romanized as ziyanihon-shiki or jiyahepburn. While reading, be careful to look at the size of the second character to distinguish between these two readings.

Hiraganaaiueo
-あいうえお
kかきくけこ
sさしすせそ
tたちつてと
nなにぬねの
hはひふへほ
mまみむめも
yやゆよ
rらりるれろ
wわを
nん

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