The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:

  • Kanji — about 50,000 characters, each with it's own meaning. Although it is necessary to know only 2,000 of them to comfortly read Japanese text.
  • Hiragana — 46 characters that represent syllables.
  • Katakana — 46 different characters that represent the same syllables as hiragana.

Also there is rōmaji — japanese language written in roman characters. It is mostly used by beginners who are learning japanese and cannot read kana and kanji.

Kanji (漢字)

Kanji was the first writing script in Japan. It was imported from China around the middle of the 6th century AD. The Japanese term "kanji" means "Chinese characters". Kanji are ideographs meaning that the whole character conveys a meaning rather than just a sound (as in the case of hiragana and katakana letters). Kanji were originally drawn as pictures from nature but gradually transformed to more generalized representations.

For example, look at these kanji characters:


Tree

Woods

Forest

There are about 50,000 kanji characters. But you do not need to know all of them to read Japanese. Children at Japanese schools learn only 1,006 kanji characters from grades one to six and through junior highschool. And in highschool they complement their kanji knowledge up to 1,945 characters. Knowing all these "Education kanji" (Joyo kanji) allows you to read most of Japanese text without any problems.

But before learning kanji it is extremely important to learn Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana (ひらがな)

Hiragana is collection of 46 characters, each representing a different sound. Hiragana and Katakana allows to write down any Japanese word or even setence, but most of the time it is used to express "grammatical" elements such as particles, and endings of adjectives, etc. Also Japanese people sometimes use hiragana to write words if they forget a kanji character for them. Japanese children start to read and write Japanese all in hiragana before making an attempt to learn some of the two thousand kanji currently used.

This table represents the basic Hiragana characters:

a
i
u
e
o
ka
ki
ku
ke
ko
sa
shi
su
se
so
ta
chi
tsu
te
to
na
ni
nu
ne
no
ha
hi
fu
he
ho
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
ya
 
yu
 
yo
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
wa
 
 
 
wo
n
 
 
 
 

To start learning basic Hiragana characters use my Hiragana and Katakana quiz game. It's the best way to start learning Hiragana. And to practice reading hiragana characters use my Hiragana and Katakana practice game. In both games you can switch character set between Hiragana and Katakana at any time.

In addition to basic Hiragana characters there are dakuten and handakuten characters. They are formed by adding quote-like mark ( ゛ — dakuten) or small circle mark ( ゜ — handakuten) to the character. For example: if we have ひ (hi), by adding a dakuten we get び (bi), and by adding handakuten we get ぴ (pi). This works only for few characters, and there are some exceptions, but it's not hard to learn.

Here is the table of dakuten and handakuten characters:

ga
gi
gu
ge
go
za
ji
zu
ze
zo
da
ji
zu
de
do
ba
bi
bu
be
bo
pa
pi
pu
pe
po

These characters sometimes are refered to as "extended Hiragana".

And final step in learning Hiragana is learning yōon characters. These characters are formed by adding a smaller や (ya), ゆ (yu) or よ (yo) to other Hiragana characters. For example び (bi) and ゅ (small yu) combine into びゅ (byu). These characters are also easy to learn if you already know basic and extended Hiragana.

きゃ
kya
 
きゅ
kyu
 
きょ
kyo
しゃ
sha
 
しゅ
shu
 
しょ
sho
ちゃ
cha
 
ちゅ
chu
 
ちょ
cho
にゃ
nya
 
にゅ
nyu
 
にょ
nyo
ひゃ
hya
 
ひゅ
hyu
 
ひょ
hyo
みゃ
mya
 
みゅ
myu
 
みょ
myo
りゃ
rya
 
りゅ
ryu
 
りょ
ryo
ぎゃ
gya
 
ぎゅ
gyu
 
ぎょ
gyo
じゃ
ja
 
じゅ
ju
 
じょ
jo
びゃ
bya
 
びゅ
byu
 
びょ
byo
ぴゃ
pya
 
ぴゅ
pyu
 
ぴょ
pyo

And now i've listed all hiragana characters. If you intend to learn Hiragana you don't have to memorize all these characters at once. Start with basic characters and when you feel you are ready, proceed to dakuten and handakuten (extended Hiragana) characters and only after learning them proceed to yōon characters.

You can use my quiz and practice games to learn the characters. In both games you can switch level between basic, extended (basic + dakuten and handakuten) and full (all Hiragana characters) at any time.

Katakana (カタカナ)

Hiragana is another collection of 46 characters, each representing the same sounds the Katakana characters do. Think of it as Hiragana with each character substituted by a totally new character. Katakana characters have fewer strokes and are easier to write. The purpose of creating a simplified copy of hiragana was to make the characters that you can write down quickly (for stenography). Now it is most commonly used to write foreign and loan words. For example: english word "bus" is written in Japanese as バス (basu), and "door" is written as ドア (doa).

This table represents the basic Katakana characters:

a
i
u
e
o
ka
ki
ku
ke
ko
sa
shi
su
se
so
ta
chi
tsu
te
to
na
ni
nu
ne
no
ha
hi
fu
he
ho
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
ya
 
yu
 
yo
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
wa
 
 
 
wo
n
 
 
 
 

You can learn an practice katakana characters by using my Hiragana and Katakana quiz game and Hiragana and Katakana practice game. In both games you can switch character set between Hiragana and Katakana at any time.

Katakana also has dakuten and handakuten characters. They are formed the same way as in Hiragana: by adding quote-like mark ( ゛ — dakuten) or small circle mark ( ゜ — handakuten) to the character. For example: if we have ヒ (hi), by adding a dakuten we get ビ (bi), and by adding handakuten we get ピ (pi). This works exactly the same way as in Hiragana.

Here is the table of dakuten and handakuten characters:

ga
gi
gu
ge
go
za
ji
zu
ze
zo
da
ji
zu
de
do
ba
bi
bu
be
bo
pa
pi
pu
pe
po

These characters sometimes are refered to as "extended Katakana".

Katakana also has yōon characters. These characters are formed by adding a smaller ャ (ya), ュ (yu) or ョ (yo) to other Katakana characters. For example ビ (bi) and ュ (small yu) combine into ビュ (byu). These characters are also easy to learn if you already know basic and extended Katakana.

キャ
kya
 
キュ
kyu
 
キョ
kyo
シャ
sha
 
シュ
shu
 
ショ
sho
チャ
cha
 
チュ
chu
 
チョ
cho
ニャ
nya
 
ニュ
nyu
 
ニョ
nyo
ヒャ
hya
 
ヒュ
hyu
 
ヒョ
hyo
ミャ
mya
 
ミュ
myu
 
ミョ
myo
リャ
rya
 
リュ
ryu
 
リョ
ryo
ギャ
gya
 
ギュ
gyu
 
ギョ
gyo
ジャ
ja
 
ジュ
ju
 
ジョ
jo
ビャ
bya
 
ビュ
byu
 
ビョ
byo
ピャ
pya
 
ピュ
pyu
 
ピョ
pyo

That's it. These are all Hiragana and Katakana characters.

You can use my quiz and practice games to learn the characters. In both games you can switch level (basic, extended or full) and character set (Hiragana and Katakana).

Please learn the Hiragana and Katakana before learning Kanji. Knowing these two writing scripts greatly improves speed of learning the language. After learning them you will be able to read some Japanese words. Also there are many excercises on the internet that require knowledge of kanas.

But if you haven't learned the kanas yet, you can use rōmaji.

Rōmaji

Rōmaji is just a romanization of Japanese language. It uses roman (english) letters to write the Japanese words. For example: word "hiragana" is a rōmaji version of ひらがな. All translations in the kana tables above are written in romaji.

Rōmaji is rarely used by Japanese people. It's mostly used by people who just begun to learn Japanese and are lazy enough to learn Hiragana and Katakana.