Hiragana and Katakana with sound and some grammar knowledge

Introduction 4

   


If your understanding remains unclear so far, a knowledge of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji will help it.
Hiragana/Katakana chart is the bellow. The left letter is Hirragana and the right letter is Katakana.
You must be careful about the usage of red letters.

Sound 1 [a,i,u,e,o/ka,ki,ku,ke,ko/sa,shi,su,se,so/ta,chi,tsu,te,to]

Sound 2 [na,ni,nu,ne,no/ha,hi,fu,he,ho/ma,mi,mu,me,mo/ya,yu,yo]  

Sound 3 [ra,ri,ru,re,ro/wa/n]  

                                                                                                  *　ヲ is not used in modern Japanese.

This is the copy of the sentence #1and #2 in Step 1.

  #1   私はインドへ行きます。   ”I am going to Ｉｎｄｉａ.”

 #2   Watashi wa Indo  e  i kimasu..
          （私　   は　インド　へ　行きます）        

black:
 a noun represented in Kanji　(私　行)                                                                            

green:
 a particle                                                                                                                  
 Particles are always written in Hiragana.                    
 A topic marker,  "wa" is wrriten "は". Please do not pronounce "ha".
 A direction marker,  "e" is wrriten "へ". Please do not pronounce "he".
（Also, a direct object marker "o" is wrriten "を").                        
        　　　
red:      
 a noun represented in Katakana
 Katakana words are incresing year by year.
 Katakana is used for the country name, the place name in abroad,  and many words which origin are not Japanese.          
The name of animals or flower is represented in Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji                                     

purple:
 the part of conjugation in verbs and the part of inflection of adjectives.
 A part of adverb and some of conjunctions are also represented by Hiragana.  

                       

Verbal inflection chart

Let's take a look at verbal chart roughly here.
Thepart of  stem or root that is not changed would be "i" in Japanese, however
”ik" is treated as a stem in order to give attention to the sound change in this chart.
You will notice that the sound of just behind "k"changes to[ a i u e o] in order.

The verbal conjugation is one of the key in Japanese learning.
The more you achieve basic matter, which is the chart of Hiragana, the more you understand well the verbal conjugation later.
Please repeat a-line; a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, ra, wa, + n
Then, a-i-u-e-o, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko, sa-shi-su-se-so......


すこし　やすみましょう

Let's sum up main points of Introduction 1 through 3.
Additional key points are shown with a special mark, ✰

1. The first step of learning Japanese is that you study Japanese syllabic sound through Romaji
    (Romanized Japanese or Roman letters). It is necessary to percercieve that Romaji is just a
    measure of representing Japanese sound for foreigners or a measure of typing, in short.
                       
2. You have to be careful when you pronounce or read/write the sound in the chart below.

✰ There is not a  sound in blue cells.
   　
Voiced consonants are in the part of light green.. Hiragana and Katakana are the type of letter, with 2 voiced
consonant mark such as
が、ぎ、ぐ、げ、ご、ぎゃ、ぎゅ、ぎょ......,
ガ、ギ、グ、ゲ、ゴ、ギャ、ギュ、ギョ......

     
Voiceless bilabial plosive consonant: ぱ、ぴ、ぷ、ぺ、ぽ　（with 1 small circle on the right top)

Sound 4 [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]  

Sound 5 [kya,kyu,kyo/sha,shu,sho/cha,chu,cho/nya,nyu,nyo/hya,hyu,hyo/mya,myu,myo]  

Sound 6 [rya,ryu,ryo/gya,gyu,gyo/ja,ju,jo/bya,byu,byo/pya,pyu,pyo]  



　　　　 left:Hiragana  right:Katakana

g	が　　　ガ	ぎ　　　ギ	ぐ　　　グ	げ　　　ゲ	ご　　　ゴ	ぎゃ　　ギャ	ぎゅ　　ギュ	ぎょ　　ギョ
z	ざ　　　ザ	じ　　　ジ	ず　　　ズ	ぜ　　　ゼ	ぞ　　　ゾ	じゃ　ジャ	じゅ　　ジュ	じょ　　ジョ
d	だ　　　ダ	ぢ　　　ジ	づ　　ヅ	で　　　デ	ど　　　ド
b	ば　　　バ	び　　　ビ	ぶ　　　ブ	べ　　　ベ	ぼ　　　ボ	びゃ　ビャ	びゅ　　ビュ	びょ　　ビョ
p	ぱ　　　パ	ぴ　　　ピ	ぷ　　　プ	ぺ　　　ペ	ぽ　　　ポ	ぴゃ　ピャ	ぴゅ　　ピュ	ぴょ　ピョ

 ✰ Note:
      Although there is not a sound "du", Hiragana づ and Katakana ヅ exist and its' sound is same as ず、ズ.
      ず　and づ　are used properly according to the origin of the word or Kanji reading.
      Ex. a map is ちず、sinceず（図...Kanji）has the meaning of a picture, drawing, a illustration and a diagram.
      On the other hand, a steel hammer is かなづち, since づち comes from つち（hammer).

      In the same way, じ and ぢ have the same sound, but each letter is used properly
      じかん (hour)   いちじ (one o'clock)    時間（じかん）、一時（いちじ）　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
      はなち (nosebleed) ち (blood) 　　　　　鼻血（はなち）、血（ち）

      When you see an unknown Kanji which includes Kanji "時", you will be able to guess the meaning of the
      word is related to "time".
   


     Now you must have realized that the study of Japanese charaters, which is Hiragana,
    Katakana and Kanji would be necessary for your reasonable understanding.          



3. The sence of Haku/Mora is imortant.
   "Kyoto"(worng) and "kyouto"(correct) have different length of the sound.
   Please try to count the number of Haku of each word below,
 
   Quiz 1

   kutsu (shoes)
   kitte (stamp)
   sukaato (skirt)
   gyuunyuu (milk)
   Konbanwa (Good evening)
   yakyuujou (baseball ground)
   chuugakkou (junior high school)  
   nihongogakkou (Japanese lanjuage school)

    Hint
    くつ、きって、スカート、ぎゅうにゅう、こんばんは、やきゅうじょう、ちゅうがっこう、
    にほんごがっこう　　
   
    Sound 6 Nippon, gakkou  

    Sound 7 ojiisan, ojisan  

    back to Introduction step 3


    Answer


4. long [ a,i,u,e,o ] which means [aa,ii,uu,ee, oo] is same as [ ā, ī, ū, ē, ō ]
 
✰[ei] becomes [ee] / [ē]   ex. eigo->eego/ēgo
    [ou] becomes [oo] / [ō]  ex. otousan->otoosan/otōsan
　 *Ths change is happened  in only romanization. There is a variety of transcription in each
       textbook. Hiragana writing is never changed such as えいご、おとうさん

     It is better to understand the sound of Japanese with your ears and mouth. Listen and pronounce repeatedly.                                                                                       

                                                                                       See you! (Mata ne!/Ja mata!)