Read this page briefly and spend most of your time on the drill exercise for quick memorization.
あ, い, う, え and お are five vowels of the Japanese language and belong to あ-row in the gojūon-zu (table of 46 basic letters).
Reading
You basically read as written in Rōmaji (Roman alphabet). But the way you usually read may be different from the sound of Japanese.
To master the correct pronunciation, try to imitate the pronunciation of native speakers.
Downloadable MP3 audio recordings are available at the Resources page.
Writing
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Look closely how lines are crossed. The 2nd stroke is slightly curved. Start the 3rd stroke at the right place. |
|---|---|
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Two lines are parallel and are a bit tilted. The line 1 is a little longer. |
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The whole shape is vertically long. Tilt the line 1 properly. Look closely how the line 2 is curved. |
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Tilt the line 1 properly. The 2nd stroke ends at near the bottom (not going up). |
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The vertical part of the 2nd stroke is not on the center (shifted towards the left). |
It's important to write in the correct stroke order. It's natural and efficient.
Wrong stroke order often results improper shape of the character.
The tilt angle of lines should be correct. Don't write in Italic.
Writing Practice
Nowadays, there aren't so much opportunities for handwriting. But the handwriting practice improves your character recognition ability.
Printable practice sheets (PDF) are available at Hiragana Writing Practice page.
Typing
| あ | い | う | え | お |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | i | u | e | o |
Above table shows keystrokes to input Hiragana letters by the English keyboard.
Most keystrokes are the same as the Rōmaji spelling.
You can input Japanese characters on your PC by changing the language settings or by installing additional applications.
The following links may be useful.
- Using Japanese Text Input on a Microsoft Windows PC (Brian Bell)
- Japanese input methods (Wikipedia)
Drill Exercise
Each drill trains specific abilities - reading, character recognition and text input.
Different voices (male, female, robot, etc.) are used to improve flexible listening ability.
