What are Kanas?
かなとは？ · Lesson 1
Japan's two phonetic writing systems hiragana and katakana and why mastering them is your first step to reading Japanese.
Two alphabets, one sound system
Japanese is written with three scripts. Two of themhiragana and katakanaare phonetic alphabets called kana. Each character represents a sound (a syllable), not a meaning. Together they cover every sound in the Japanese language.
Same sounds, different shapes
Every hiragana character has an exact katakana equivalent. They represent the same soundsonly their visual form differs. Once you learn one system, the second comes much faster.
| Sound | Hiragana | Katakana |
|---|---|---|
| a | あ | ア |
| ka | か | カ |
| sa | さ | サ |
| na | な | ナ |
| ma | ま | マ |
Three groups to learn
Kana are organized into three groups. Learn them in ordereach group builds on the last.
Two things that will confuse you (explained early)
The small っ (hiragana) and ッ (katakana) are not pronounced as a syllable. They create a brief stop before the next consonant like holding your breath for one beat.
When う or い sit between two voiceless consonants (k, s, t, h, p), or at the end of a sentence, they are whispered or nearly silent. This is standard Japanese, not sloppy pronunciation.
You will hear this everywhere. Don't be alarmed — the kana is still there, just whispered.
Both in one word
Tips for memorizing kana
- Practice daily, even briefly. 10 minutes a day beats an hour once a week. Use the kana speed game to test yourself after each group.
- Draw mode helps. Writing reinforces the shape in muscle memory. Enable it in settings if you have a touch screen.
- One row at a time. Select just one row (e.g. the か row) and drill it until you can answer instantly before adding the next.