E-03 · Station 3 of 36 · Onigiri Line (おにぎり線) · Rank E: Read Japanese
Level 3: Hiragana Part 2 · は to ん
は・ま・や・ら・わ and ん: the last 21 hiragana, the odd ふ, and を (said “o”). That’s all 46.
Video: Learn Hiragana with Mnemonics, Part 2 (は to ん) | Japanese N5 Speedrun #3 · 15 min. Coming soon on YouTube.
What you’ll learn
21 new kana
- は ha
- ひ hi
- ふ fu
- へ he
- ほ ho
- ま ma
- み mi
- む mu
- め me
- も mo
- や ya
- ゆ yu
- よ yo
- ら ra
- り ri
- る ru
- れ re
- ろ ro
- わ wa
- を o
- ん n
15 words
| Kana | Kanji | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| みせ | 店 | mise | shop, store |
| へや | 部屋 | heya | room |
| はる | 春 | haru | spring |
| ふゆ | 冬 | fuyu | winter |
| よる | 夜 | yoru | night |
| やま | 山 | yama | mountain |
| ひる | 昼 | hiru | noon; daytime |
| くるま | 車 | kuruma | car |
| ゆき | 雪 | yuki | snow |
| はな | 花 | hana | flower |
| みち | 道 | michi | road, path; the way |
| くつ | 靴 | kutsu | shoes |
| さかな | 魚 | sakana | fish |
| め | 目 | me | eye |
| みみ | 耳 | mimi | ear |
How it works
ふ is fu, never “hu”
ふ is a soft f: blow through relaxed lips, like blowing out a candle. Your teeth don’t touch your lip. The row goes ha, hi, fu, he, ho: never “hu”.
- ふ · fu · a soft f
- ふゆ · fuyu · winter
を is read o
を is read o, exactly like お. It’s a particle: it marks the object, the thing the verb acts on. In modern Japanese, を is only used as this particle.
- を · o · exactly like お
- ほんを よみます。 · hon o yomimasu · (I) read a book
ん is a full beat
ん gets one full beat, on its own: hold it as long as any other kana. Almost no word starts with ん. That’s why in しりとり, the word-chain game, a word ending in ん loses.
- み・か・ん · mi-ka-n · 3 beats · mandarin orange (and our cat)
- ほ・ん · ho-n · 2 beats · book
は and へ as particles
As particles, は is read wa and へ is read e: わたしは (watashi wa), “as for me…”; にほんへ (Nihon e), “to Japan”. The greeting こんにちは (konnichiwa) ends in the same は. Everywhere else they’re ha and he. Like を, these are old spellings kept for particles.
- はな · hana · flower: here は is just ha
- へや · heya · room: here へ is just he
The trap
Twins: ぬ and め (and ね, れ, わ)
Look at the end of the stroke: a loop means ぬ (nu). Mikan’s yarn has a loop to play with; め (me), “meh”, has nothing. Same game with ね, れ and わ: ね ends in a loop, like the hoop of Rin’s net; れ kicks out to the right, like Tadashi’s leg; わ curves back round, like a full balloon.
- ぬ · nu: ends in a loop
- め · me: no loop
Mini test
5 questions. Get 4 right and the level’s mini test box ticks itself.
Homework for the comments
In the comments: write 3 words from this level in hiragana, from memory. No copying!
Example: やま、ゆき、さかな