Learn Hiragana with Free Resources

Learn Hiragana: Japanese Writing for Beginners

Hiragana is one of the fundamental Japanese writing systems and an important first step for beginners learning Japanese. It is commonly used for native Japanese words, grammatical endings and particles. Learning hiragana makes it easier to read beginner Japanese sentences and continue studying vocabulary and grammar.

JLPTForAll provides free hiragana learning resources to help beginners recognise, read and write Japanese characters. Use our hiragana chart, practise with the hiragana quiz, download a hiragana PDF and reinforce your learning with writing and vocabulary practice.

How Many Hiragana Characters Are There?

The basic hiragana system contains 46 characters representing the standard Japanese gojūon sound sequence. These include あ, い, う, え and お, through to わ, を and ん. Japanese also uses modified sounds such as が, ざ, だ and ば, as well as combinations such as きゃ, しゅ and ちょ.

How to Learn Hiragana

A practical way to learn hiragana is to study a small group of characters at a time, practise recognising each character, write it repeatedly and then use it in simple Japanese words. Interactive quizzes help improve recognition while writing worksheets reinforce character formation.

What Should You Learn After Hiragana?

After becoming comfortable with hiragana, beginners can learn katakana, build basic Japanese vocabulary and study beginner grammar. You can also explore more Japanese learning resources from JLPTForAll.

Hiragana and JLPT N5

Hiragana is an important foundation for learners preparing for JLPT N5. Beginners should become comfortable reading basic hiragana before focusing heavily on vocabulary, grammar and kanji. JLPTForAll combines beginner Japanese resources with online practice so learners can study and test what they have learned.