Chapter 2 of 17 · Explore the Japanese path
The script · Chapter 2 of 17
Read seven real words from eleven characters
A hiragana character is a whole syllable, not a letter. Learn eleven of them and read dog, cat, water, bird, forest, tree and fox, which all come back in the closing stories.
≈ 3 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- Each hiragana character is a whole syllable, not a letter — “nu” is one character, not two.
- The vowels hold steady, so a character sounds the same nearly everywhere.
- The table holds only the eleven characters these seven words need.
- Two small strokes voice a consonant: su → zu. And つ is “tsu”, never “tu”.
- Try each word once, reveal it, say it. All seven come back in the closing stories.
Japanese writes with three sets of characters at once; this section uses a slice of the first, hiragana — the round, loopy one. A hiragana character is not a letter: each one is a whole syllable. ぬ
Only the characters these seven words need
Eleven characters cover all seven words below. Say each one on its own before you meet it inside a word.
| Character |
|---|
| い |
| ぬ |
| ね |
| こ |
| み |
| す |
| と |
| り |
| も |
| き |
| つ |
つ
Two small strokes voice the consonant
Two small strokes voice a consonant, the change English makes from s to z.
Seven words for the closing stories
Use the table and the segmentation hint. Read the characters in order, then reveal and say the whole word.
- いぬ
i + nu
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いぬinu “dog” - ねこ
ne + ko
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ねこneko “cat” - みず
mi + su with the voicing strokes
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みずmizu “water” - とり
to + ri
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とりtori “bird” - もり
mo + ri
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もりmori “forest” - き
one character, one syllable
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きki “tree” - きつね
ki + tsu + ne — remember the middle one
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きつねkitsune “fox”