Japanese 15 - Hiragana 3

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

HiraganaRomanization
ya
shi
しゃsha
ji
じゃja
no
ma
ri
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
-
k
s
t
n
h
m
y
r
w
n

Contributors