Symbol Chart
Lessons
ひらがな Hiragana
| あいうえお | かきくけこ | さしすせそ | たちつてと |
| なにぬねの | はひふへほ | まみむめも | やゆよ |
| らりるれろ | わをん |
カタカナ Katakana
| アイウエオ | カキクケコ | サシスセソ | タチツテト |
| ナニヌネノ | ハヒフヘホ | マミムメモ | ヤユヨ |
| ラリルレロ | ワヲン |
The Japanese symbols
There are three different types of symbols (alphabets) in Japanese. They are Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic, so you can read all of them once you learn how to pronounce them.
However, Kanji is not phonetic. Each Kanji symbol usually has a few different ways to pronunce. For example, the pronunciation of Kanji symbol "日", which means day, can be "ni chi", "hi" and "bi".
It is not wrong to write in Hiragana only, but it looks like a kid writing and you would rarely see it in a real life. Kanji is used in conjunction with Hiragana and Katakana in newspaper, magazines and books.
