When you start studying a new language, you probably start with learning the alphabet. For English speakers, learning the Japanese alphabet, hiragana and katakana, can be quite hard. However, once you master them, learning Japanese would be much easier.

What are hiragana and katakana?

In the Japanese language, we use three writing systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana and katakana correspond to the phonetic sounds. That means, if you learn the basic hiragana and katakana, you can pronounce all the sounds in the Japanese language.

Hiragana

We mainly use hiragana in our writing, combined with kanji, the symbols derived from Chinese. We also rely on hiragana for writing how to pronounce kanji, known as furigana.

Katakana

We use katakana for names that come from outside of Japan. Like “fork”, “bed”, “computer”, we didn’t create Japanese words to name those objects. Instead, we transcribed the sound of those words in Japanese, written in katakana. If you don’t have a name that is written in kanji, you will write your name in katakana.

Do I need to learn to read hiragana and katakana?

If you only want to know a few phrases to communicate while traveling in Japan, you don’t need to master hiragana and katakana. On our website, the beginner level phrases are also written in the English alphabet. However, learning how phonetics work in Japanese can help you pronounce Japanese words and phrases better, so I highly recommend you to study basic ones.

If you want to continue studying Japanese to reach higher levels, learning hiragana and katakana is indispensable. Living in Japan would be much easier if you can read them. 

Hiragana and katakana chart

Practice reading hiragana and katakana in our courses!

No products were found matching your selection.