The Vowel’s The characters of the Hiragana Japanese alphabet are split up into those that ends with the sounds a,i,u,e,o for most of the characters with only a few exceptions. In Japanese there are three sets of characters Hiragana, Katakana (the two Kana’s) and Kanji, Hiragana is of the most important characters because it is used more and it's the basis of Japanese writing. In order to get the pronunciation right you could repeat the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sdAMpT8evwLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

あ A

い I

う U

え E

お O

あおい Blue

いいえ No

うえ Top

*Tip: In order to track your own progress and aid in the long term memorization of the characters have a chart somewhere you can see it and every time you learn a character put it up on a poster or a piece of paper and keep adding new characters that you learn along the way.

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The K character’sLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

か Ka

き Ki

く ku

け ke

こ Ko

あかい warm

くうき air

こい carp

おけ tub

The S characters

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Lets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

さ Sa

し Shi

す Su

せ Se

そ So

すし Sushi

せかい World

かさ Umbrella

あそこ There

The T charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

た Ta

ち Chi

つ Tsu

て Te

と To

とけい Clock

て Hand

つくえ Desk

うち House

した Under

The N charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

な Na

に Ni

ぬ Nu

ね Ne

の No

なな seven

にく Meat

いぬ Dog

ねこ Cat

きのう Yesterday

The H charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

は Ha

ひ Hi

ふ Fu

へ He

ほ Ho

はな Flower

ほし Star

ふね Ship

へた Bad at

ひこうき Airplane

The M charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

ま Ma

み Mi

む Mu

め Me

も Mo

うま Horse

あめ Rain

にもつ Luggage

むし Insect

みせ Store

The Y charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

や Ya

ゆ Yu

よ yo

やも Mountain

よやく Booking

ゆき Snow

The R charactersLets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

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Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

ら Ra

り Ri

る Ru

Re

ろ Ro

サくら Cherry

しろい White

とり Bird

これ This

くるま Car

Tip: As the Ro and Ru characters might be confusing to differentiate remember that Ru (る)is more curved at the edge.

The W characters and the N

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Lets write! かきましよう！（kakimashiyou)：

Hiragana English Practice (renshu) れんしゅ

わ Wa

を Wo

ん N

わたし I/Me

せんせい Teacher

ModifiersTenten and maru

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Tenten:By adding what is called a tenten that looks like a double apostrophe to certain characters their sounds change.Maru: Maru looks like a small circle on the side of the character and is only added to the H characters.Without tenten With tenten

K character GS character ZT character DH character B

This is what it looks like:かーがさーざたーだはーばTo get a better understanding refer to the following table:

がga

ざza

だda

ばba

ぱpa

ぎgi

じji

ざji

びbi

ぴpi

ぐgu

ずzu

づzu

ぶbu

ぷpu

げge

ぜze

でde

べbe

ぺpe

ごgo

ぞzo

どdo

おbo

ぽpo

Combination of characters

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Certain characters are combined in order to create new sounds a や(ya)or ゆ(yu) or よ(yo)character comes after another character and in this case the two sounds are combined and the ya or yu or yo get smaller.This is what it looks like:か＋や＝きゃ(Ki=Ya=kya)し＋ゆ＝しゅ(shi+yu=shu)To get a better understanding refer to the table below:

きゃkya

きゅkyu

きょkyo

ぎゃgya

ぎゅgyu

ぎょgyo

しゃsha

しゅshu

しょsho

じゃja

じゅju

じょjo

ちゃcha

ちゅchu

ちょcho

にゃnya

にゅnyu

にょnyo

ひゃhya

ひゅhyu

ひょhyo

びゃbya

びゅbyu

びょbyo

ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ

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pya pyu pyoみゃmya

みゅmyu

みょmyo

ExercisesLets practice, れんしゅしましょう、Writing exercise:Write the hiragana equivalent of the following:Eg:De-su=です

1) Su-go-i=2) Ka-sa=3) Ta-i-ku-tsu-na=4) Shi-ma-i= 5) Sa-i-ko-no= 6) Do-ko=7) Na-ni=8) Nu-su-ma-re-ta= 9) Hai-ta-tsu-shi-ma-su= 10) Fu-to-n= 11) ta-to-e-ba= 12) Na-ma-e=13) Na-ku-shi-ta=14) Na-shi-de= 15) Na-ze=

Reading exercise:Write the English pronunciation equivalent of the following: Eg:です=de su１）わかりました＝２）わかりません＝３）すみません＝４）たすけて＝５）ちょとまってください＝６）ありがとう＝７）さよなら＝８）はじめまして＝

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９）むり＝１０）ごめんなあさい＝１１）おはようございます＝１２）こんばんは＝１３）はい＝１４）おめでと＝１５）がんばって＝

Meanings and answers:Below are the answers for the previous two exercises. However please do remember that the following are written in their hiragana equivalent and there are changes to many of those if they include kanji and katakana . However writing them in the ways shown below would still be understood by people however, it would just mean that your writing skills are still at primary school level however it would not render your communication.Writing exercise-

1) すごい=Awesome2) かさ= Umbrella3) たいくつな= Boring4) しまい= Sister5) さいこの= Best6) どこ= Where7) なに= What8) ぬすまれた= Stolen9) はいたつします= Deliver10)ふとん= Mattress11)たとえば=for example12)なまえ= Name13)なくした=Lost14)なしで= Without15)なぜ=what

Reading exercise-1) Wa-ka-ri-ma-shi-ta, I understand2) Wa-ka-ri-ma-se-n, I don't understand3) Su-mi-ma-se-n, Excuse me 4) Ta-su-ke-te, Help me5) Cho-to-ma-tte-ku-da-sa-I, Hold on please6) A-ri-ga-to-u, Thank you

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7) Sa-yo-na-ra, Goodbye8) Ha-ji-me-ma-shi-te, How are you doing?9) Mu-ri, Impossible10) Go-me-n-na-sa-i, Sorry11) O-ha-yo-go-za-i-ma-su, Good morning12) Ko-n-ba-n-wa, Good evening13) Ha-I, Yes14) O-me-de-to, Congratulations15) ga-n-ba-tte, good luck

How to improve your Japanese?Although you have learnt through this booklet how to read and write hiragana and picked up some phrases and words you need to expand on your vocabulary, learn the grammar, increase your speed in writing reading and fluency in dialogue. This can be done in several ways however the three ways that have worked the best for me as a teenager were the following mentioned below.

Typing in HiraganaWe live in a world that is very technology oriented and as a result we spend most of our time on either our computers, tablets,phones etc. Because of this I have discovered that by typing in Hiragana you can increase your speed in reading as well as typing/writing. I added Hiragana to my languages and so whenever I clicked on that I could type japanese directly without having to use the sites I used before. Plus it types straight onto things like word documents and websites and email etc. And You get to see all the characters on the kana table and if you want you can type with that instead to make things more challenging to see if I remember the characters or not.

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This is useful because it is a much faster and easier way to type in Hiragana without having to resort to the internet or

external sources. This is better as it is more accessible especially when trying to type something into a word

document and even searching for files and saving them and searching the dictionary it all turns up in Japanese

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Japanese pen palsBased on my own experience getting a Japanese pen

pal or a pen pal that can communicate in Japanese is one of the fastest way to increase your vocabulary and your fluency. You are also able to learn more about Japanese culture and food etc. Many times you might offer to exchange help where you may help your pen pal with their English and they might help you with your Japanese other times it's just either one of those. It all depends on your penpal. By using this you can find pen pals from all over the world and you can specify the age or gender even the country, city, district, hobbies and even the languages they can speak:www.japan-guide.com

Test and quizzes Refer to the following links below in order to test your self and even play games that can help aid in you progress as well as the memorization of the characters use the following links: http://www.easyjapanese.org/kanaquiz.htmlhttp://www.onlinenihongo.com/

Learn The Japanese Alphabet HiraganaBy: Shahd Al-

BazOffered in Arabic and English

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