The Hiragana kana

As you can see, Japanese characters represent syllables, rather than letters.

There are two "alphabets" or, "kana" in the Japanese language.
Hiragana, & Katakana.

Hiragana is used regularly, while Katakana is used only for foreign words, such as orange (o-re-n-ji).


The first five Hiragana, represent the raw vowel sounds used.


The a is pronounced like the a in "account"
The i is pronounced like the ee in "teeth"
The u is pronounced like the oo in "oops"
The e is pronounced like the e in "egg"
& the o is pronounced like the o in "moth"


[Character] [How to write] [The vowel in roman lettering] [An idea on how to memorize it]