Free interactive tool
Hiragana Chart
tap to hear every kana.
The full gojūon — all 46 base hiragana plus dakuten, handakuten, and combination sounds. Tap any character to hear it spoken, see its romaji, and get a shape-to-sound mnemonic that makes it stick.
Base hiragana (gojūon)
The 46 core characters · tap to hear
Dakuten & handakuten
Voiced sounds: ゛ and ゜ marks
Combination sounds (yōon)
Paired with small ゃ ゅ ょ
Tap a kana to learn it
a
Hiragana FAQ
How many hiragana characters are there?
There are 46 base hiragana in the gojūon. Adding dakuten and handakuten marks gives 25 more voiced sounds, and combining with や, ゆ, よ produces the yōon contracted sounds — about 104 readings in total. This chart covers all of them.
What order should I learn hiragana in?
Most learners start with the five vowels (a, i, u, e, o), then work down the gojūon chart row by row: か, さ, た, な, は, ま, や, ら, わ. Once the 46 base characters stick, add the dakuten and combination sounds.
What is the difference between hiragana and katakana?
Hiragana and katakana represent the same sounds but look different. Hiragana is used for native Japanese words and grammar; katakana is used for loanwords, names, and emphasis. See the katakana chart to compare.
How does the audio on this chart work?
Each character plays a real recorded pronunciation. It's the same natural voice that powers the Kanapow iPhone app, which breaks any word down mora by mora so you can read Japanese out loud.
Katakana Chart
The same interactive chart for katakana — loanwords, names, and sound effects.
Romaji ↔ Kana Converter
Type romaji and watch it turn into hiragana or katakana instantly.
Kanapow for iPhone
Read any word mora by mora with tap-to-hear audio. Free to start.
Ready when you are
From chart to real reading.
Kanapow turns any word into kana, mora by mora, with audio you can echo back. Free on iPhone.