Questions tagged [hiragana]
ひらがな. The cursive form of the syllabary used mostly for (but not restricted to) the grammatical features of written Japanese including verb endings and particles, and for native words written without kanji.
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What is the purpose of katakana?
I noticed in words like アメリカ and イギリス are written in katakana, but why is 日本 (にほん) in hiragana if Japan is a country too? I noticed katana is also used in modern stuff (like smartphone, スマホ).
Was ...
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Is it a hiragana or a kanji or something else entirely?
This is the description of the Japanese book 告白 by Kanae Minato. In the picture, in red, are two instances of a character I suppose to be a hiragana.
But I have never seen it and can't find it ...
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Difference between ひらがな and 漢字 in this poetry
A friend of mine shared this poetry to me, and just for fun I decided to translate it in my first language, Italian. The author is 穂村 弘 Homura Hiroshi, a contemporary writer.
あした世界が終わる日に
あした世界が終わる日に
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Is it 日本人 or にほんじん?
I've been studying Japanese on my own for only three days. Why does the word "Japanese" sometimes appear like this 日本人 and also like this にほんじん?
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What is the pronunciation difference between ち and ぢ
While several people have asked about the pronunciation difference between じ and ぢ(there is none), the difference between ち and ぢ has not been talked about much. Yet, they seem the same to me, even ...
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Why were hiragana and katakana never merged into one system?
I am familiar with the history of why these two writing systems were invented, and my question comes more from a modern practical standpoint.
In my understanding, hiragana and katakana both have same ...
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Will I need kanji in Japan [closed]
So I’m trying to learn Japanese since there is a slim chance that I will go to Japan for a tournament next year,I want to know if it’s necessary to learn kanji just for a few days in Japan??if you are ...
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Patterns across Hiragana consonants?
I've recently begun studying Japanese just for fun. I rely really heavily on patterns to learn languages. Please do excuse me if I'm using incorrect terminology. This is literally my second day of ...
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Is "入っ" still pronounced "はい" when reading it? (Okurigana question)
I am fairly new to reading kanji and grammar, and I just learned that "入る" is pronounced "はい" because it is an okurigana. My question is, are all okurigana pronounced in their &...
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I've seen 雄臭い used in some articles and posts but couldn't find the hiragana pronunciation, does anyone what it is?
Based on the kanji and what I gathered I'm assuming it means "smells manly" or "reeks of a man". The thing is I couldn't find any hiragana reading on the kanji and wanted to know ...
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How to understand combined characters (kanji) more easily?
A lot of Japanese restaurants, mangas and just paragraphs of texts in general (or not in general, used basically anywhere) use combined characters to make things appear shorter.
And I can’t understand ...
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What fraction of Japanese words contain digraphs?
I'm curious as to what the percentage of native Japanese words that contain digraphs, or to put it another way, the average number of digraphs (or individual kana) in a Japanese word would be. I'm a ...
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Are the Hiragana characters ぢゃ, ぢゅ, and ぢょ (still) used?
I am learning Hiragana, and I pulled a couple of charts off the internet to use as study aids. One of them has the line of characters ぢゃ, ぢゅ, and ぢょ, but they are not in the other chart.
Are these ...
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は is pronounced differently in two words
In こんにちは(hello), it is pronounced like 'wa'. But in おはよう(good morning) its pronounced like 'ha'. Can someone explain the catch here(Please keep in mind that I'm an absolute beginner)?
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Dakuon on kanji and hiragana where it's not normally used [duplicate]
https://twitter.com/motokazu95/status/1469469575930871808
小林さんと酒゛が゛飲゛み゛た゛い゛！
In this tweet dakuon is used after a kanji and on these hiragana where I've never seen them used before, which I've ...
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Are hiragana characters related based on construction?
I've noticed that certain hiragan characters are written in the same way. For example one could look at の め あ ぬ as progressions on a similar theme. If I could put it crudely, we have swoop, line+swoop,...
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What methods are used to teach hiragana and katakana to 6 year olds?
I understand that in Japan children start school at 6 years of age and that they are expected to learn the 46 hiragana and 46 katakana syllables by the end of that year. I'd like to know more about ...
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Looking for website / tool / help in showing what typed Kanji on a keyboard should look like if hand written [duplicate]
Just as the title suggests, tons of Hiragana Katakana & Kanji look different when you type them on a phone compared to how one would learn to write them on pen and paper.
Is there a tool I can ...
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Need help on translating
I am confused with this, I am new to Japanese and I am still learning it, but isn't this supposed to mean "Tawapon Sanha?" ?, also why is the Sa symbol different from the usual symbol that ...
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is it grammatically correct to write ニ as ンイ
I was looking at the list of kana, and I realized something. Say, you wanted to write the syllable “ni”, you would write “ニ”, right? Is it possible to write “n” syllables using “ン” and vowels? For ...
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Popular conventions that Japanese people use the Japanese characters to draw or type Emoji
This question is about the popular conventions that Japanese people use the Japanese characters to draw or type Emoji.
What are some principles and conventions that Japanese people follow?
Here is one ...
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鋼 pronunciation
I know that one of the kanji for Steel is 鋼 and one of the pronunciation is はがね (hagane). But in some mangas I read this kanji with the pronunciation がね (gane) without the は;
like 黒鋼 (くろがね/Kurogane).
...
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Is no the same as not?
is いいえ/no the same as not? For example, if I said,いいえ きょう, would that mean Not Today? Or No Today? I know google translate is known to be inaccurate, but it shows both Not and No as the same, いいえ. ...
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What are the Hiragana columns called in Japanese? [duplicate]
For instance English texts to learn Japanese will refer to ま、み、む、め、も as the Ma column, and I've even seen this terminology used in translations of Japanese material (although I unfortunately couldn't ...
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Does Japanese have characters in small size and in capital size?
In English it's normal for the sentence to start with a capital letter. In German also. Additionally, there are classes of words that are written in German with an initial capital letter.
How is it in ...
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Rules to leave spaces between words when using kanji and kana
I'm trying to understand when I should leave blanks (spaces) between Japanese words when using either kana or kanji.
My understanding is that blanks should be left when otherwise the text is confusing....
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Hiragana chart: yi, ye, wu - where and how?
A very naïve but logical question:
Why are these missing in the Hiragana chart?
yi,
ye,
wu
If there are, where can I find them? How to write them?
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Can 案が検討されまして also be used to mean "implemented"?
I'm not sure how to make sense of this section of text.
Either it says that buses were considered for use but ultimately left without stranded passengers, OR that sightseeing buses were used and ...
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波比不部保 ([B] sounds) → はひふへほ ([h] or [f] sounds)
Hiragana (平仮名 or 平假名) has its cursive form originated from the Chinese cursive form 草書. You can read from https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D. Also https://www.hana300.com/aakana....
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Is Japanese に related to the Chinese character 仁?
Is Japanese に (pronounced as "ni") related to the Chinese character 仁 (pronounced as "ren" in Chinese mandarin)?
Does the に have the root from the Chinese character 仁?
They both ...
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Is there an error in this song's subtitles or I'm not understanding it correctly?
Here is the song.
My confusion comes in first seconds of this song (also repeated in the end):
ずつと ずつと (Zutzuto Zutzuto) → "one by one" (?)
or
ずっと ずっと (Zutto Zutto) → "forever forever&...
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Is my Hiragana and Katakana handwriting correct? [closed]
I don't have a teacher and I'm not going to any Japanese classes. I learn Japanese by myself and on the internet. but Content on the Internet is contradictory. I freaking out that I learned all this ...
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How to tell if a なり is the なる form or if it is the hiragana form of a word?
I am uncertain if the bolded なり below is the hiragana form of the kanji 鳴り 'ringing, sound' or if its the なる form for the そぞろ. (which would come out as 'to become restless/ to become on edge (and ...
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How do I write the equivalent ofトー (tō) in hiragana?
I am trying to write a character's name, given to me in katakana, in hiragana. The character's name ends in "トー" (tō). I'm brand new to Japanese and learned that ー is the "chōonpu,"...
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Seemingly random use of Katakana? [duplicate]
I've noticed sometimes, especially in video games, that some parts of sentences that would normally be written in hiragana is instead written in katakana. For example, I've seen "です" written ...
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How would i say "in ten minutes"? [closed]
I'm writing a paragraph for my Japanese oral exam and want to say "i have class in ten minutes", or "i will go to my class in ten minutes", how would i say this?
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When not to use です [duplicate]
さくらは青い = Sakura is blue
さくらは青いです also = Sakura is blue
Google use the first one as default. How do we know when it's ok not to use desu?
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Why is 測 written in hiragana sometimes?
The dialog in this PDF document has the word はかります but when I search the word in romaji, only 測ります (and some other variations), show up in the results. Why is it that the kanji word 測 is written like ...
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Kanji or hiragana? 駄目です vs だめです [duplicate]
Which is the correct or more common way of writing
駄目です
or
だめです?
My text book says it means "it's is not possible".
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When is Kanji REALLY used? [duplicate]
Whenever somebody tells you about kanji, they say something like this:
Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs.
However, the further I go, the more realize that this ...
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サッと: Mix of ひらがな and カタカナ in the same word?
So, I've come across this sentence
そのとき、陽が当たった石版に何かの影がサッと横切った。
which I'm fairly sure it means something like
At that time, something's shadow quickly crossed the sunlit lithograph.
Now, what ...
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How do you write cho, chu, che and cha in Japanese using hiragana? [duplicate]
I'm not completely sure on how to write cho, chu, che and cha in Japanese (using hiragana). I have a rough idea that includes having the ち (chi) character followed by any of the 'y' characters (yo, yu,...
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Positioning of small kana in compound kana
When writing compound kana the small kana is slightly lower than centre.
But is it slightly left of centre as well ?
Take じゃあ
Here we have 3 kana.
Firstly, when writing, is the total width of the ...
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Do you think it's a good practice to learn writing hiragana using Gothic fonts? [duplicate]
When I was searching for a mobile app that lets you practice writing hiragana, I noticed that a lot of them uses the Gothic font, meaning that さ will be written as 2 strokes and not 3. The most common ...
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The difference between 何/なに (nani) and なん (nan)?
In そうなんですか (sounandesuka) the なん (nan) is used to explain something, give reasoning, or to emphasize something but in これはなんですか (korewanandesuka) the なん is treat as "what", how to know when ...
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What is なん in そうなんですか
I understood roughly what sou desu, sou des ka mean. But I'm having difficulty in understanding the word nan in sou nan des ka. If Sou des ka can literally be translate as "correct/it seem so is ...
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Origin of Nanka
When watching anime I heard this word come across (Tsuki ga kirei, ep4, somewhere at the end) and I was wondering if it is a combination of nani and ka or just another word. If it is a combination ...
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Is there a story behind drawing a face with の as eyes, も as a nose and へ as a mouth?
In the first episode of the Zatoichi series there is a scarecrow whose face is drawn using various hiragana.
When I seen it it occurred to me that I've seen that done somewhere else before.
Is there ...
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Why is "Encouragement of Climb" written in katakana instead of hiragana?
I'm just a beginner in Japanese, but I know the difference between the use of katakana and hiragana in sentences. Katakana is used for transliteration of foreign words, onomatopoeia, technical or ...
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