Ukiyo the Cat Ukiyo

Hiragana Chart

Full chart of the hiragana syllabary with sounds.

Gojūon-zu 【五十音図】

  • In Japanese, syllables are organized in the form of a table (5 x 10). This table is called gojūon-zu (literally means table of 50 sounds).
  • To describe these sounds, Hiragana and Katakana alphabets are used.
  • Letters い, う and え appear more than once in the table. These 5 duplicates (gray colored) are usually skipped or ignored.
  • Another syllable ん is included. It doesn’t belong to any row or column.
  • In total, 46 letters (45+1) are counted as gojūon (50 sounds).
Gojūon 【五十音】
# a i u e o
a
k
s
t
n
h
m
y
r
w
n

Dakuon 【濁音】and Handakuon 【半濁音】

  • Dakuon literally means turbid or murky sound. It is the voiced sound of か [ka], さ [sa], た [ta] and は [ha]-row syllables.
  • Dakuon is indicated with two small dots.
  • Pronunciation of じ and ぢ, ず and づ are the same.
  • Handakuon literally means half-turbid or half-murky sound.
  • Handakuon is indicated with a small circle.
Dakuon 【濁音】with Handakuon 【半濁音】
g
za
da
ba
pa

Yōon 【拗音】

  • Yōon is a combination of the consonant of i-column syllables and ya, yu or yo. For example, k + ya = kya.
  • Yōon is described by i-column letters plus small や, ゆ or よ. For example, き + ゃ = きゃ [kya].
  • Pronunciation of じゃ, じゅ, じょ and ぢゃ, ぢゅ, ぢょ are the same.
Yōon 【拗音】with Handakuon 【半濁音】
# ya yu yo
ky きゃ きゅ きょ
sh しゃ しゅ しょ
ch ちゃ ちゅ ちょ
ny にゃ にゅ にょ
hy ひゃ ひゅ ひょ
my みゃ みゅ みょ
ry りゃ りゅ りょ
gy ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ
ja じゃ じゅ じょ
by びゃ びゅ びょ
py ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ