How Japanese Is Written

Why Japanese uses three scripts, and the 46 sounds you start with.

Three Scripts, One Sentence

Japanese uses three kinds of writing at the same time. Most sentences are a mix of all three.

You are starting with hiragana. It came from Chinese characters that people simplified over hundreds of years, and today it is the one used for everyday Japanese.

あHiraganaThe round one. It carries the grammar and the everyday words.

アKatakanaThe pointy one. It is used for words borrowed from other languages.

漢KanjiThe picture one. It came from Chinese, and one character carries the meaning of a word.

Start With the Sounds

Hiragana and katakana together are called kana. There are 46 basic characters in each, and each one is a single sound.

Every character in this course comes with a picture that looks like the character and starts with the same sound.