Lesson Eight: Kana 2
Good to see you again! I’ve got more characters that I want to teach you! This time we’ll be covering the hiragana starting with S and T.
Don’t forget to listen to the pronunciation and check how to write it. Stroke order is very important!
sa | さ |
shi | し |
su | す |
se | せ |
so | そ |
Did you notice what was different with the S set? The second character has an extra letter in it! That is because this character has more of a “sh” sound than a “ss” sound. There are a few other characters that don’t fit perfectly with the rest of the sounds.
For example, with the T characters there are two that are pronounced differently. ち(chi) andつ(tsu).
ta | た |
chi | ち |
tsu | つ |
te | て |
to | と |
Remember when I told you about the dakuten earlier? The dakuten works for both the S characters and the T characters. The S characters turn into ‘z’ sounds and the T characters turn into ‘d’ sounds.
However, the し (shi) character with a dakuten turns into a (ji). The ち(chi) with a dakuten turns into a ぢ(ji), and the つ(tsu) turns into a づ(zu).
Here’s how the S characters look with a dakuten.
za | ざ |
ji | じ |
zu | ず |
ze | ぜ |
zo | ぞ |
And here’s how the T characters look with a dakuten.
da | だ |
ji | ぢ |
zu | づ |
de | で |
do | ど |
Feeling confident? Let’s get some practice writing them.
GAME: Fading characters
How did you do? The more practice you get writing hiragana the easier it will become. Most people find hiragana easier to use then romaji after they’ve been using it for a while. Don’t forget that the main use of romaji is for people that don’t know Japanese. Switch over as soon as possible!
Let’s keep up at it! Hiragana is very different from your writing system, so you have to be sure to practice!
GAME: Write cards
Great! Get those mastered and then we can cover pronouns. You’ll be well on your way to making sentences!
