Start with the five vowels
The first five hiragana are あ・い・う・え・お. They represent the sounds a, i, u, e, o. Listen to each one and say it aloud before moving to the next row.
あ い う え おa · i · u · e · o
See the pattern in each row
The か row follows the same vowel order: か・き・く・け・こ (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko). Learning rows as patterns is easier than treating every character as an unrelated shape.
か き く け こka · ki · ku · ke · ko
A simple first practice session
- Listen to the five vowels once.
- Cover the romaji and name each character.
- Mix the vowel and か rows, then check the ones you miss.
- Return tomorrow for a quick review before adding another row.
After the basic rows, the chart also shows voiced sounds such as が and combined sounds such as きゃ. There is no need to learn them all on day one.