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Introduction to Consonant and Vowel Combinations

Intro

And that’s all the vowels!

While English also only has 5, or sometimes 6, vowel LETTERS, there are as many as 20 vowel SOUNDS in English. Fortunately, Japanese only has 5! It’s important, moving forward, to try and make sure you ONLY use those 5 vowel sounds when speaking Japanese. 

All the new characters from here on out, except for 1, will be a consonant sound COMBINED with a vowel sound. But, that combination will still be pronounced for just one single beat, or MORA, just like the vowels we learned so far. 

Hiragana

Most consonant sounds in Japanese can be combined with ALL 5 vowel sounds we just learned. In charts, they’re usually ordered BASED on those vowel sounds, and the order is the same as the one we just learned our first 5 characters in. 

あいうえお. 

Our first consonant sound is the K sound in Kick. And ordering it by vowels, we get かきくけこ。So, let’s go! 

← Back to お・オ
Continue to か・カ →
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ToKini Kana Introduction Page あ・ア い・イ う・ウ え・エ お・オ Consonant Vowel Combinations か・カ き・キ く・ク け・ケ こ・コ Kana Reading Practice 1 さ・サ し・シ す・ス せ・セ そ・ソ た・タ ち・チ つ・ツ て・テ と・ト Kana Reading Practice 2 な・ナ に・ニ ぬ・ヌ ね・ネ の・ノ は・ハ ひ・ヒ ふ・フ へ・ヘ ほ・ホ Kana Reading Practice 3 ま・マ み・ミ む・ム め・メ も・モ や・ヤ ゆ・ユ よ・ヨ Kana Reading Practice 4 ら・ラ り・リ る・ル れ・レ ろ・ロ わ・ワ を・ヲ ん・ン Kana Reading Practice 5 Dakuten, Han-Dakuten, and Sokuon Kana Reading Practice 6 Kana Combinations Kana Reading Practice 7 Special Katakana Combinations The End Kana Worksheets