I’ve written before about how I memorize vocabulary such as here and here. To start with the usual disclaimer, everybody has different learning styles so what works for me may not work for you and vice-versa.
To summarize, the way I learn vocab is by sheer volume and in context. Reading, in particular, is how I learned most of the vocabulary I know. And boy is there a lot of vocabulary to learn. I know enough Kanji at this point that I can pretty much guess the reading of words most of the time. So I look up a lot of words and very quickly. Now, can I say that I’ve completely memorized all those words? Not by any means, but they’re definitely in my brain somewhere, one step closer to memorization until the next time they come up.
Here’s what my recent dictionary history looks like. Yes, after 10 years since I started my website for learning Japanese, I’m still learning all these words. Now, should you memorize my words? Absolutely not, you should encounter your own words in context of whatever you’re reading or hearing.
If you’re new to this series, check out my previous posts under the “Japanese from Scratch” category.
In this lesson, we will learn how to read and write the remaining Hiragana characters.
Sounds to watch for
The /r/ sound is notoriously difficult for English speakers. It is a hard sound between “r” and “l”. You want to make sure that you flick your tongue against the roof of your mouth, similar to how Spanish speakers roll their r’s.
The last few sounds don’t really follow the convention that we’re used to. There is no “yi”, “ye”, “wi”, “wu”, or “we” sounds.* And while 「を」 technically is a “wo” sound, it sounds exactly the same as “o” （お） in practice. As you’ll later learn, 「を」 is only used for grammatical purposes and not as part of regular words. Therefore, it will not show up in the reading practice below.
Finally, as the only consonant-only sound, 「ん」 is an curious anomaly. It comes after another sound to add a “n” or “m” consonant sound. I find that if you always pronounce it as “n”, nobody really notices the difference.
Reading Practice
Here’s a list of other vocab you should read over for some simple reading practice. Once again, don’t worry about memorizing the definitions.
そら – sky
やま – mountain
しろ – white
ゆき – snow
よる – night
りす – squirrel
おふろ – bath
わたし – me, myself, I
さん – three
よん – four
ふとん – futon
ゆめ – dream
みらい – future
むり – impossible
みる – to see
れんこん – lotus root (used in Japanese cooking)
Congratulations, you’ve learned all of Hiragana! We’re almost done with all the sounds in Japanese. Review the complete Hiragana chart here.
My Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/taekimjapanese
*Classical Japanese does have “wi” （ゐ） and “we” （ゑ） but they are no longer used.
If you’re new to this series, check out my previous posts under the “Japanese from Scratch” category.
In this lesson, we learn how to read and write the /h/ and /m/ consonant sounds in Hiragana.
Sounds to watch for
Most of the sounds in this section are exactly how you would expect except for 「ふ」, which is a weird sound somewhere between “who” and “fu”. Basically, your mouth when pronouncing “who” (as in “Doctor Who”) is an open circle while “fu” (as in “kung fu”) is completely closed with your top teeth touching your bottom lip. However, 「ふ」 lies directly in between the two sounds almost as if you’re trying to pronounce both at the same time. In practice, probably nobody will really notice anything wrong if you pronounce it as just “fu”. Incidentally, this is the sound for words like “Fuji” and “futon” so obviously we hear it as “fu” and not “hu”.
Reading Practice
Here’s a list of other vocab you should read over for some simple reading practice. Once again, don’t worry about memorizing the definitions.
Japanese doesn’t necessarily follow how we would normally expect consonant and vowel combinations to sound like. While most are pronounced how you would expect, 「ち」 is actually pronounced “chi” (instead of “tee”). Another very tricky sound for English speaker is 「つ」 which is a sound that really has no equivalent in English. To pronounce 「つ」 (“tsu”), try forming an “o” with your mouth as if you’re pronouncing “sue” and add a hard “t” sound at the start of the sound by touching your tongue to the back of your teeth.
It is often difficult at first to distinguish between 「す」 and 「つ」. The word for “moon” and the adjective for liking something is often used as an example. I got the sample audio files below from forvo.com. Can you notice the hard “t” sound that’s only in the first clip?
Admittedly, learning random vocabulary is not very useful but it is good reading practice so do read over the list below but don’t worry about memorizing the definitions.
If you’re new to this series, check out my previous posts under the “Japanese from Scratch” category.
In this lesson, we learn the next two columns in the Hiragana chart: the /k/ and /s/ sounds.
Have you noticed that the new sounds have the same vowels we just learned in the last segment? As we learn more of Hiragana, we simply add a new consonant with the 5 vowels we already learned.
Just like how we would never write “a” by hand how it looks in a computer font, some Hiragana characters are not written they way they look typed on a computer.
If you compare the Hiragana for “ki” and “sa” below with the version in the practice sheet, you’ll notice that there’s a gap in the handwritten version not in the typed version. き versus
さ vs
「せ」 is also not usually written with such a large hook in the second stroke as it displayed by most computer fonts. In fact, many (including myself) write it with no hook at all. せ vs
「そ」 is fine written exactly the way it looks typed. However, you can also decide to write the first stroke differently as shown below, making it two strokes。 そ vs
There’s no single “correct” way to write these characters and often depends on personal preference. Keep an eye out for these discrepancies and go with what works best for you.
Sushi and other tidbits
Now you know how to write “sushi” in Hiragana: 「すし」. However, in Japanese, it is usually called 「おすし」. 「お」 is an honorific prefix that is used before certain words such as “money” or “store”. I’m not really sure why. Another thing you may often see in sushi restaurants is 「しそ」, that green leaf used for decoration that I personally never eat.
Reading Practice
So what kind of words can you say with /k/? How about romantic love? While 「あい」 is a very deep kind of love nurtured with time and effort, 「こい」 describes more of a romantic, exciting, or infatuation type of love. The same word is also used for “koi” fish, of course! If you ever go to a fancy Japanese restaurant that has a koi pond, you should say, “You know, these fish are called 「こい」 in Japanese.” They probably already knew that but they would be impressed if only they could see that you said it in Hiragana.
Speaking of homophones, the word 「かき」 has over 10 different meanings including “oyster” and “persimmon”. Those two can be particularly difficult to sort out in a conversation since they’re both edible. Because Japanese has many homophones, most of these words are written in Kanji or Chinese characters. But we still use Hiragana to describe how the Kanji is read or pronounced. Don’t worry, we’ll get to it all soon enough.
Here are some other words for additional reading practice using the /k/ and /s/ sounds.
あか – red
いけ – lake
いく – to go
かく – to write
あし – foot; leg
あさ – morning
いす – chair
かさ – umbrella
あせ – sweat
うそ – lie
（お）すし – sushi
せかい – world
With 「あか」, we now know 2 of the 3 traffic light colors. And unlike green/blue, they do use “red” for red light in Japan (and yellow). Here’s a random, scandalous tidbit: in Japanese, the verb 「いく」 is used for orgasms instead of “to come”, basically the opposite of English. But I wouldn’t recommend practicing this!
Um, anyway, why don’t you play around with this cool koi flash thingamajig and feed the fish. Until next time!
Bored with feeding the fish? Check out my page on Hiragana.
Here are the example words from the lesson with some additions for extra reading practice.
あい – love
あお – blue
いえ – house
うえ – above
おい – nephew
おう – to chase
あう – to meet
Here’s a odd tidbit. Did you know what we call “green” for a green traffic light is called 「あお」 in Japan? Actually, it IS kind of blue in Japan depending on how you look at it so it’s not that strange.
The sound 「おう」 is also an interjection used to express an “informal affirmative response“. So next time somebody says, “Let’s do it!” You can respond 「おう！」 instead of “yeah!”. Practicing interjections in Japanese is a great way to start sounding and maybe even feeling a bit more Japanese.
I am trying out a new series called “Japanese from Scratch” by making videos that go over Japanese in small steps in a quick, no-nonsense fashion. In this first video, I do a brief overview of the 3 writing systems in Japanese to give you some context before jumping straight into Hiragana. Post your questions, suggestions, and feedback here or on the video page for future videos.
I’ve been meaning to write about this in a post sitting in my draft folder since early 2008. Oops. But now you can read about it and get some reading practice at the same time. Like she says, the only reason English speakers have a reason to confuse the two is because they happen to translate to the same word in English: “should”. But that word itself has many different meanings so it’s yet another example of why you should avoid translating to English as much as possible.
Formal Suggestions
I would add that 「べき」 is a fairly formal phrase to use when making suggestions. So you normally wouldn’t use it to suggest eating more vegetables, for example. In a conversational setting, you should stick with 「～方がいい」. In English, it’s more formal to say “it’s better to…” as compared to “you should…” but it’s the exact opposite for Japanese.
I would also add that 「はず」 is not always used with absolute certainty. In English, people often say “supposed to” to try to avoid accountability and 「はず」 can be used the same way.
Ａ：あれ？田中さんはまだ連絡がないの？
Ａ：Huh? No word from Tanaka-san?
Ｂ：そう。昨日までに連絡をくれるはずだったのに…
Ｂ：That’s right. Even though (he/she) was supposed to contact (me) by yesterday.
One of the first batch of words that students of Japanese usually learn is the 「こ」、「そ」、「あ」、「ど」 series of words for things and locations.
これ – this
それ – that
あれ – that (over there)
どれ – which
ここ – here
そこ – there
あそこ – over there
どこ – where
Most will also probably learn the shortened version of 「これの」 etc. such as 「この」. And that’s usually about all that’s ever covered even though there’s a bunch more 「こ」、「そ」、「あ」 vocabulary that are really useful! So let’s look at a few.
Like this/that
You know how you’re not supposed to use the word “like” all the time. Well, we all do anyway because it’s so useful, right? The 「こう、そう、ああ」 series of words are arguably just as useful.
If somebody asks you how to do something, one common answer is “do it like this or that” and that’s exactly what 「こう、そう、ああ」 means. Now you see where 「そうです」 comes from.
A: この漢字はどう書くんですか？
A: How do you write this Kanji?
B: こう書きます。
B: You write it like this.
The real power from these words come when you combine them with 「いう」 to define what something is like. The English equivalent would be “this/that kind of thing”. It’s a great way to talk about abstract or complicated matters.
Examples
そういう難しい話は、よくわかんないよ。
I don’t understand that kind of difficult talk (topic).
こういう時には、本当に何もする気がないんだよな。
Really don’t feel like doing anything in times like these.
You can extend this further by attaching 「風」 (pronounced 「ふう」 in this case), to describe a certain way of doing things.
この漢字はこういう風に書くのよ。
You write this Kanji in this kind of style/manner.
This/that much?
Another incredibly useful series of words are: 「こんな、そんな、あんな」. Combined with the 「に」 particle, these words will allow you to say common things like “Are you that hungry?” or “Did you have to buy this much?”. You can also use them without the 「に」 particle but the meaning is a bit hard to explain and is not used as often (in my opinion).
Examples
そんなにお腹が空いているの？
Are you that hungry?
こんなにたくさん買う必要があったの？
Did you have to buy this much?
Comparison
If you’ve learned the grammar for comparisons, you are probably already familiar with the phrase 「どちらの方が」. This literally means “which way” which you can obviously answer with “this or that way”. It can also be used for plain directions as well, of course.
こちら – this
そちら – that
あちら – that (over there)
Etc
There are others like 「こいつ、そいつ、あいつ」 that I’m not going to discuss here. I don’t want to be accused of corrupting the pure and proper Japanese that is taught in most classes. 🙂
So if you’ve been learning Japanese for any decent length of time you’ve probably seen this word: 忙しい. I thought I had completely memorized that word 9 years ago. Somehow, I never noticed that word actually had two readings. So imagine my shock when I looked up the word せわしない. The dictionary states that it’s an emphasized version of another word: せわしい. Guess what that word looks like when written in Kanji. Needless to say, that word is usually written in Hiragana. Wow, it’s a really good reminder that learning a language is a never ending process. And that while I love Kanji, yes it does sometimes suck.
Other words I learned recently: いちゃもん、抗生物質、放射線. The last obviously being a word on the minds of everyone in Japan. On an even more personal note, this is my first post written entirely on my phone. Yay!
