Hiragana chart

All 46 hiragana in chart order. Tap one to see it written stroke by stroke, trace it and print it; the voiced and combined sounds are below.

The 46 basic hiragana

Rows a, k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w and n; columns a, i, u, e, o. 46 of the 46 have their own page.

Voiced sounds: dakuten and handakuten

がga ぎgi ぐgu げge ごgo ざza じji ずzu ぜze ぞzo だda ぢji づzu でde どdo ばba ぱpa びbi ぴpi ぶbu ぷpu べbe ぺpe ぼbo ぽpo

Two short strokes (dakuten) voice a consonant: k to g, s to z, t to d, h to b. A small circle (handakuten) turns h into p.

Combined sounds (yōon)

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

An i-column kana followed by a small ya, yu or yo makes a single syllable.

Strokes in the chart

Counted on KanjiVG, the 46 basic hiragana take 104 strokes in all. く, し, そ, つ, て, の, ひ, へ, る, ろ and ん are written in a single stroke, and き, た, な, ふ and ほ take the most, 4 each. Hiragana came from whole kanji written in a flowing hand, which is why so many strokes curve and run into each other.

For 31 of the 46 sounds the hiragana and the katakana come from the same kanji.

How to learn the chart

Learn one row a day and write each new character a few times while saying it out loud; start with the vowel row, because every other row ends in those five sounds. Then test yourself on the hiragana quiz, which can ask you to write the answer with your finger, and print rows from the hiragana practice sheets for pen-and-paper practice.

The other script

The two scripts are compared, with our counts, in hiragana vs katakana; the katakana chart is one click away.