Hiragana Basics

So we already learnt a little about Hiragana in lesson 1 but now we should learn a little more about some of the rules.

First of all you need to know about dakutens. these little dashes completely transform the sound

K->G S->Z T->D H->B

for instance this is ka and ga. as you can see the only difference is the dakuten.

mora KA hiragana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Japanese Hiragana kyokashotai GA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are also handakutens which are used to turn a H->P for instance ha to pa は -> ぱ

The next rule you should learn is about 'Digraphs' this is where a small Y sound (ya, yo, yu) transforms a hiragana into a new sound.

The transformation occurs for

for instance き (ki) becomes きゃ (kya)

It should also be known if a small tsu sound つ it will double the first letter of the next hiragana.

That's all you need to know for now!

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