The Japanese alphabet

Kana is the friendly part of Japanese: most learners can read all of hiragana within one to two weeks, and katakana a week or two after. Learn hiragana first — it is used for grammar endings, particles and children's books — then katakana, which is used mainly for foreign loanwords (コーヒー kōhī "coffee") and emphasis. Once you know the 46 basic shapes, the voiced marks (゛ ゜), small ゃゅょ and small っ give you every sound in the language.

How to learn it fast

• Learn kana row by row along the gojūon grid (a-ka-sa-ta-na-ha-ma-ya-ra-wa) — it is the order used in dictionaries and on Japanese phone keypads.
• Two small marks unlock 25 more sounds: dakuten ゛ voices a consonant (か ka → が ga, さ sa → ざ za, た ta → だ da, は ha → ば ba) and handakuten ゜ turns h into p (は → ぱ pa).
• Small ゃ ゅ ょ after an i-sound kana merge into one syllable: き + ゃ = きゃ kya, し + ょ = しょ sho. Small っ doubles the next consonant: きって kitte "stamp".
• Long vowels matter: おばさん obasan "aunt" vs おばあさん obāsan "grandmother". In katakana, a long vowel is written with the bar ー: コーヒー kōhī.
• Drill the classic look-alikes: さ/ち, ぬ/め, ね/れ/わ, る/ろ, シ/ツ, ソ/ン, ク/ケ/タ, ウ/ワ.
• Particles are spelled the old way: は is read wa, へ is read e and を is read o when they are particles (わたしは watashi wa).

Did you know?

• Both hiragana and katakana developed from Chinese characters: for example, あ comes from the cursive form of 安 and ア from part of 阿.
• Almost no Japanese word begins with ん — which is why ending a word with ん makes you lose the word-chain game shiritori.
• The Iroha, a poem from around the 11th century, uses every kana exactly once and was long used as an alternative alphabetical order.
• The kana ゐ (wi) and ゑ (we) were dropped from standard spelling in the 1946 script reform, leaving the 46 basic kana used today.
• Japanese is traditionally written vertically, top to bottom and right to left; horizontal left-to-right writing is now common in textbooks, websites and science.