Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana: A - KO
In this lesson I showed everyone how to write some of the Japanese alphabet. There are technically 4 alphabets in
Japanese, but really only 2.
Hiragana, which is the major alphabet;
Katakana, which is the alphabet used to write words borrowed from other languages;
Kanji, which are borrowed characters from Chinese; and
Romaji, which are just the English letters that are used to write Japanese words.
Well be using Hiragana, Katakana, and Romaji a lot. Well try to work into Kanji, but that wont be for a while.
Here are some examples of Hiragana and Romaji (Im ignoring Katakana for now because we havent learned it yet):

These are all Hiragana. They are all Hiragana characters that I went over in the lesson.
Here is how we would write them in Romaji:
A

AI

KAKU

KAKI

AKE

OOKII

EKU

Hopefully this made sense. Practice pronouncing these words out loud. Yes, yes, yes. Talking to yourself out loud is
weird, and other people might think that you are crazy. But who cares? You want to learn Japanese, right? Well, read
all the Hiragana on this page out loud to your dog, cat, goldfish, pillow, or whatever. If you arent sure how to pronounce
them, check out the video and listen to how I pronounce the characters.
(1)Turn these Hiragana into Romaji (and read them out loud):

(2)Turn these Romaji into Hiragana (and read them out loud):
IKU

AI

KEO

KOU

UKI

UKOKI

IKI

EKI

AU

AO

KAI

IKIOKA

KAOKU

.
In both sections, some of those were real words. Dont worry what they mean or which ones. Just know that youre
actually writing Japanese.
------------------------------1) AI; AOI;
AKAI; IKA; IKU;
OKO; IKI;
KAKU; KAI;
KUI;
KOI; OKA; IAKE; KOUKOU
2)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana: Sa - To
In this lesson we learned some more hiragana. The S row and the T row.

Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Chi Tsu Te To
Remember that were writing the pronunciation of the characters. Thus, Shi, Chi and Tsu dont follow the normal one
consonant, one vowel pattern.
(1) Turn these hiragana words into romaji!

(2) Turn this romaji gibberish into hiragana!

SETSUTO

TAKUI

TOKUTSU

TAKAI

USHICHI

OSAKA

TSUSA

UTSUSU

TOKIO

ETASE

SEATO

SEITO

KEIKI

CHIITO

AICHI

ASUKI

OTATSU

SHIKIKE

SASOTO

AKISA

TETSUO

I could just keep giving you more and more homework, but instead of that, go to wikipedia.com, and click on the icon that
says. Just start clicking on sites randomly and search for characters you recognize. You can look them up on
the hiragana chart thats on my website.
When you start looking through the characters on wikipedia, youre going to start saying Holy moly! I dont recognize any
of them!! Dont worry! Its OK! You wont know a lot of them for a long time. But its worth looking at real Japanese writing.
On Wikipedia, the text reads like English: top left to bottom right. Some Japanese texts do this, and some dont.
-------Answers to the above questions:
(1) (row 1) ATSUI, USO, SOU, TATSU, TATE, SOTO, ASOU (Row 2) KISATE, KUCHI, ASOKO, SUSHI, SEITO,
TETSUTAU, IKUTSU (Row 3) ETO, TOOI, KETSU, KAITA, KEEKI, TAISETSU, SHIO
(2) (Row 1) (Row 2)
(Row 3)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana Na - Ho
In this lesson we discussed the hiragana characters in the N row and the H row.

Na Ni Nu Ne No

Ha Hi Fu He Ho
Remember the strange pronunciation of the FU character. It is not an actual F sound, but rather a light F&H mix.
(1) Turn these words into Romaji!(some of them are made up. Try copy-pasting into google to find out which)

SUSHI

KAOKE

(2) Turn these into Hiragana! (I made them all up except a few)
KEHO TSUCHIHOKO
MEFUHOSOSESHI

HOTETSU

SHIHIKI

CHISAFUTOKIFUHO SHICHITSU

KINUTA

NESENA

NISHINO

SEFUKUHEKITO

HANUHE

NANIFU

OKASHISOSOUTESUNEAKASATANAHICHINIKIKUUKOU

UENIKI

HOFUNO

NEHEKE

KECHINA

HOKIFU

Quite a few of the words above are just completely made up gibberish. This is simply because Im too lazy to find the
words that would suit my purpose. Going through a dictionary to find this many words that dont use characters you
havent learned yet is quite the nuisance.
---------Answers:
(1) (Row 1) NANI, HONE, TANUKI, NESUMI, ANI, ONIISA, OKANE (Row 2) FUSHIKI, HATACHI, AHA, KUSAI, HENO,
NOSAKI, SAKIKO (Row 3) HINANO, HATSUKA, FUKAI, KESHIKI, TSUCHIHOKO, HAKOSU, HAFUTSU (Row 4)
CHITSUNU, FUKEHO, NUNEKI, NAOKI, NIKONIKO, UEHIHO, FUIKI
(2) (Row 1) (Row 2)
(Row 3) (Row 4)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana Ma - Yo
In this lesson we learned the characters Ma through Yo. These rows are the 3rd and 4th rows from the left/bottom.

Ma

Ya

Mi

Mu

Yu

Me

Mo

Yo

Remember that the Y-row only has three characters. Once again, it used to have more, however Ye and Yi were dropped
at some point.
(1) Turn these words into Romaji!

(2) Turn these into Hiragana! (These are pretty much gibberish again)
MUSHITO

ONIKUMA

YUKIMA

MASHITSU

MICHIYA

OTONAKI

HANA

YUMUME

MINASOTA

OHAIO

YOUKOSO

OMINEMA

YAMIMUYO

YOYU

HISUTO

SUKOU

SUKIYAMA

YOMUNA

OSUSHI

OKANE

MEMO

YUTAKA

OHASHI

AKIYAMA

ISHIMA

YAMAMOTO

YAMATO

HAE

-----------Answers!
(1) (Row 1) MAKIMASHITA, MUKAI, SUMIMASE, YOSHI, YASASHII, YUUMEINA, MAKINO
(Row 2) YOMIMASHITE, SEIFU, SUMOU, KIMUCHI, MOSHIKASHITE, MOKUYOU, TOKEI, (Row 3) TAKASAKI,
SUIMASHITA, MIEMASE, INU, MOSHIMOSHI, YUME, YUKI, (Row 4) SHIMOMUSHI, YASASHIKUSHITE, OOKIKU,
ATAMAII, YAMA, NOMITAI, ATOMU
(2) (Row 1) (Row 2)
(Row 3)
(Row 4)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana Ra - N
This is the last of the Hiragana chart! Yay! There was once a WI, WU, and a WE, but they arent used any more..

RA
RI
RU
RE
RO
WA
(w)O
N

The (w)O is pronounced like a normal , however it is different because it is only used as a particle. Particles will
be explained later, but to make things simple, is never used as part of a word, only after a word. Thus, some of the
practice below will be sentences. When writing this character in Romaji, it is perfectly acceptable to just write O.

Be careful when reading the character. It is written in Romaji as nothing more than an N. If a vowel sound follows the
letter N, then you are probably looking at a character in the NA NI NU NE NO row.
(1) Write these in Romaji!

(2) Change these guys into Hiragana!

FUMU NIHON wO KUWAREMASHITA

SHIRITSU

MICHI wO IKIMASU

TSUMA TO KENKA SHIMASHITA

WATASHI NO ASHI

ISU TO KAMI wO TORIMASU

WAN WAN

RUSHINO

KURUMA wO KUREMASHITA

MUKASHI NI SAMURAI IMASHITA

---------Answers
(1)
(Row 1) MUSHI WO TABEMASU, KEN O TSUKAIMASHITA, KONO HITO O KOROSU, KUMA O KUIMASU,
SHIRIMASUKA (Row 2) SHIRUNO, SHIRO O TSUKURIMASU, OOKAMIOTOKO O KAMIMASU, TORA NI KUWARETA,
NEWARE, RENEWA (Row 3) RIKUTO, KURISUMASU, TORINIKU, WATASHI NO NAMAE, SONNA KOTO, KUSURI O
NONTA (Row 4) REKISHI O NARAU, ROWANTA, RISU O OIKAKERU, ROBA WO NORU, GO ROKU SHICHI HACHI.
(2)
(Row 1)
(Row 2)
(Row 3)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana Ten-Tens
In this lesson we discussed what are called ten-tens, the little marks to the top-right of the characters. They change the
consonant sound of the characters.

GA GI GU GE GO
ZA JI ZU ZE ZO
DA DI TZU DE DO

BA BI BU BE BO

PA PI PU PE PO

(1) Turn these into Romaji!

(2) Turn this gibberish into Hiragana!

JIBOGATZU
BUKOUKUKOU
BASUDEI

DOUDEN

BAPIKAGU

GAZUPOBE

ZABOPI

DADEOBABIO

ZUTZUSUTSU BEGUBIPODA

DATZUJI
OKIGISHIJI

UANPAIYAA

SHICHIJINI

PABEPOGU

JIDEO BIDEO

---------Answers:
(1) (Row 1) GAKI GA IYA DESU, DOCHIRA NI SHIMASU KA, SHINBUN O YONDA, NIWA GA KIREI DESU
(Row 2) BUSHIDOU, MAGURO GA MIZU O NONDEITA, KUJI NI DOROBOU GA KITA, GAIKOTSU O NOBORU
(Row 3) ISOIDE TSUTZUKU, SOUBI GA KAITAI DESU, GIN DE KAIMASHITA, SAIKORO O FURU
(Row 4) JIYUU NI DOUZO, GOKIBURI GA BUTSUKARIMASHITA, JISATSU SHITA BOKUSHI, DOUITASHIMASHITE
(2) (Row 1)
(Row 2)
(Row 3)

Evans Easy Japanese

Hiragana Compounds
With this lesson, you should be fully prepared to write any native Japanese word in Hiragana. You have learned how
to double consonant; how to make the Y-row characters flow from other consonants; how to properly elongate the O
sounds in Hiragana; and you should have learned that, the only way to double an N is to add in front of it. Also, one
does not use a small tsu to double up N, M, R, Y, or W sounds .
Now I am free to write ANY Japanese words I want to! It was such a pain in the bottom to filter words that you hadnt
learned to write yet! Here we go.
(1) Turn these into Romaji!

(2) Turn these into Hiragana!

EIGA wO MI NI IKOUHIDOI YATSU DESU NE

ASHI GA ITAI

CHIRYOKU IKUTSU

NIJYUUMEN NO SAIKORO WO FUTTE MITE

TAIKYUURYOKU GA TAKAI

SYOURYOU GA BIKKURI SHITA

HEE SOU DESU KA

SORYA IKENAI NO DA

FUTTA SAIKORO NO GOUKEI

WASHYA GA ERAI NO JYAA

NYUUSU INTABYUU

IPPAI NARATTA
DAIDOKORO

----------Answers!
(1)
Row 1: ZASSHI O YOMIMASHYOU, GAKKOU NO SHYASHIN O MITAKATTA, TSUUKAKYOUKYUU GA FUETEIRU
Row 2: KYODAI NA KUMO GA KOUGEKISHITE IMASU, GAIKOTSU KARA NIGERO, KYAA KOWAI, NYAN,
IRASSHYAIMASE
Row 3: KUREYON SHINCHYAN, YUMI O NERATTE UCHIMASHYOU, KAMI KARA MORATTA NO DESU,
SHYACHYOUTTE DONNA HITO
Row 4: KUTTA KUTTA, NOUMIN, KONNA TOKORO DE NEYOU KA, KOKO GA KOUKOU DESU, OKAASAN
(2)
Row 1:
Row 2:
Row 3:
Row 4: