ROMAJI, SOUNDs, & HIRAGANA

1) a (ah) あ

2) i (E) い

3) u (ew) う

4) e (eh) え

5) o ( O ) お

6) ka ( kah ) か

7) ki ( kE) き

8) ku (kew) く

9) ke (keh) け

10) ko (kO) こ

11) sa (sah) さ

12) shi (shE) し

13) su (sew) す

14) se (seh) せ

15) so (sO) そ

16) ta (tah) た

17)chi (chE) ち

18)tsu (tzu) つ

19) te (teh) て

20) to (tO) と

21) na (nah) な

22) ni (nE)に

23)nu (new)ぬ

24) ne (neh)ね

25) no (nO)の

26) ha (hah) は

27) hi (hE)ひ

28) fu (few) ふ

29) he (heh)へ

30) ho (hO)ほ

31)ma(mah)ま

32) mi (mE)み

33)mu(mew)む

34) me(meh)め

35)mo (mO)も

36)ya (yah)や

37)yu (yew)ゆ

38) yo (yO)よ

39) ra (rah) ら

40) ri (rE)り

41) ru (rew) る

42) re (reh) れ

43) ro (rO) ろ

44)wa (wah) わ

45)wo (wO) を

46) n (ng) ん

See also the link for writing Japanese hiragana under "Japanese Lessons"

Japanese Stroke Order

When writing in Japanese, you should write Japanese characters in the following order:

1. Start drawing the upper horizontal lines of a character, drawing from left to right.

2. Draw upper vertical lines, drawing from top to bottom.

3. If a character is made up of more than one basic shape, （EX: い　、は）　finish drawing the shape on the left first before you move on to drawing the shape on the right.

NOTE：　 All words in the Japanese language are written using one or more of four

writing systems. The writing systems are:

· Hiragana - This is the system children would usually learn first. Hiragana has 46 symbols, and these symbols can be used to represent any sound in the Japanese language. In the past, hiragana was known as “woman’s hand” because it was developed by women, and it uses flowing lines with many curves.

· Katakana – This is the second writing system children would master. Katakana has 46 symbols too, which can be used to represent any sound in the Japanese language. In the past, katakana was known as “man’s hand” because it was developed by men, and it uses sharp, strong strokes. Some katakana characters are similar in appearance to their hiragana mates (EX: 　へ ( hiragana) and 　ヘ　(katakana)), while others look completely different (EX: し(hiragana) and シ (katakana)). Katakana today is primarily used to write words that the Japanese language has borrowed from other languages (EX: コーヒー　coffee)

· Kanji – Chinese characters. There are 1,945 Chinese characters that Japanese students are expected to learn before they graduate from high school. Not only do kanji characters have a sound, each kanji has a meaning given to it. Most words are written using a combination of hiragana and kanji (EX: 見る　miru “to see”).

· Romaji – Roman characters (the English alphabet). Romaji refers to both the English alphabet and the way of using the English alphabet to write Japanese words. Because of the difficulty with the Japanese language, romaji has and probably never will replace the three other writing systems.