2.1 Hiragana
Key Takeaways
- Hiragana has 46 base characters arranged in the gojuon grid of five vowels (a, i, u, e, o) and consonant rows.
- Dakuten and handakuten diacritics add 25 voiced/p-sounds; the handakuten circle applies only to the h-row (ha -> pa).
- The small tsu (little tsu) marks a doubled consonant (kitte), and a small ya/yu/yo forms a contracted yoon syllable (kyou).
- The topic particle ha is read 'wa', the object particle wo is read 'o', and the direction particle he is read 'e'.
- Confusable hiragana such as ha/ho and wa/re/ne differ by a single stroke and are engineered into N5 distractors.
Reading Comes Before Everything Else
Hiragana (ひらがな) is the phonetic syllabary that carries the grammatical machinery of Japanese, and reading it fluently is the single most important skill for JLPT N5. Every part of the test, from Vocabulary and Grammar to Reading and even the printed answer choices in the Listening section, assumes you can decode hiragana instantly. Hiragana is a syllabary, not an alphabet: each character stands for a whole syllable (a consonant plus a vowel, or a lone vowel), so there is no separate letter for a bare consonant except one. Master the 46 base characters plus a few modification rules and you can sound out any Japanese word.
The Gojuon: 46 Base Characters
The core set is laid out in a grid called the gojuon (五十音, literally 'fifty sounds'). Five vowels run across the top, a, i, u, e, o, and consonant rows run down the side. Read a cell by combining its column vowel with its row consonant: the k-row plus the i-column gives き (ki). A few cells break the pattern and must be memorised: し is shi (not 'si'), ち is chi (not 'ti'), つ is tsu (not 'tu'), and ふ is fu. The y-row has only や/ゆ/よ, the w-row has only わ and を, and ん is the one standalone consonant.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | あ a | い i | う u | え e | お o |
| k | か ka | き ki | く ku | け ke | こ ko |
| s | さ sa | し shi | す su | せ se | そ so |
| t | た ta | ち chi | つ tsu | て te | と to |
| n | な na | に ni | ぬ nu | ね ne | の no |
| h | は ha | ひ hi | ふ fu | へ he | ほ ho |
| 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 wo | |||
| n | ん n |
The single most useful fact here: を (wo, pronounced 'o') and ん (n) never begin a word. を appears only as the object particle, and ん appears only inside or at the end of a word (ペン pen, にほん nihon).
Dakuten and Handakuten: Voiced Sounds
Two small diacritics create 25 more sounds without adding new base shapes. The dakuten (濁点), a pair of ticks in the upper-right corner, voices a consonant: か (ka) becomes が (ga), さ (sa) becomes ざ (za), た (ta) becomes だ (da), は (ha) becomes ば (ba). The handakuten (半濁点), a small circle, applies only to the h-row and produces the p-sounds: は becomes ぱ (pa), ひ becomes ぴ (pi), ふ becomes ぷ (pu). So the h-row is unusually productive, since ほ can become ぼ (bo) or ぽ (po). N5 words such as でんわ (denwa, telephone), かばん (kaban, bag), and えんぴつ (enpitsu, pencil) all depend on reading these marks correctly.
Yoon: Contracted Glide Sounds
When a small や, ゆ, or よ follows an i-column consonant, the two characters fuse into one yoon syllable. き + small ゃ = きゃ (kya); し + ゅ = しゅ (shu); ち + ょ = ちょ (cho). The small kana is written at about two-thirds size; a full-size よ would be read as a separate syllable and change the word. きょう (kyou, today) is two syllables, but きよう (kiyou) is three, and the exam exploits exactly this contrast. Common N5 yoon words include びょういん (byouin, hospital), でんしゃ (densha, train), and じゅぎょう (jugyou, class).
Long Vowels and the Small tsu
Two length features change meaning and are tested constantly. A long vowel doubles a vowel's duration. In hiragana it is usually written by adding the matching vowel kana: おかあさん (okaasan, mother), おにいさん (oniisan, older brother), くうき (kuuki, air). The 'oo' sound is normally spelled with う, as in おはよう (ohayou) and がっこう (gakkou), and the 'ee' sound with い, as in せんせい (sensei) and えいが (eiga). The small っ (a half-size つ, called the sokuon) marks a doubled consonant heard as a short pause before the next sound: きって (kitte, stamp), がっこう (gakkou, school), ちょっと (chotto, a little). Miss the っ and きて (kite, come) replaces きって, a completely different word.
Common Confusions to Drill
Several hiragana differ by a single stroke and are built into N5 distractors. Learn each pair side by side:
- は (ha) vs ほ (ho): ほ has an extra horizontal bar on the left stem.
- わ (wa) vs れ (re) vs ね (ne): all share a left stem; the right side differs, since れ hooks straight down, ね loops, and わ curves.
- ぬ (nu) vs め (me): ぬ has an extra loop-tail; め does not.
- る (ru) vs ろ (ro): る ends in a loop, ろ ends open.
- さ (sa) vs ち (chi): near mirror images, since さ opens to the left and ち opens to the right.
Building Reading Fluency
The exam gives 20 minutes for roughly 30 Vocabulary items, so hesitation is costly. Do not translate letter by letter; train yourself to see whole kana at a glance and read words as units, taking わたし as 'watashi', not 'wa-ta-shi'. Practise with real N5 words daily until recognition is automatic. Remember three pronunciation quirks that the spelling hides: the topic particle は is read wa, the object particle を is read o, and the direction particle へ is read e. Everywhere else these same characters keep their dictionary sounds (は = ha in はな hana, へ = he in へや heya). If you can read the gojuon grid cold, add dakuten, and handle the small っ and long vowels, you can already decode every printed word on the N5 paper.
Which hiragana character represents the sound 'nu'?
In the word きって (postage stamp), what does the small っ indicate?
Which two hiragana are most easily confused because they differ mainly by an extra horizontal stroke?