{"id":1279,"date":"2018-11-01T02:38:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T17:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2018-11-01T02:38:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T17:38:04","slug":"how-many-letters-are-in-japanese-alphabet-basic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/en\/self-study\/how-many-letters-are-in-japanese-alphabet-basic\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Letters are in Japanese Alphabet? (Basic)"},"content":{"rendered":"

English alphabet consists of 5 vowels and 21 consonants, which makes 26 letters in total.<\/p>\n

Japanese alphabet consists of 5 vowels and 14 consonants<\/strong> (some think more than 14, depending on how to pronounce each consonant), which makes 19 letters in total!?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not quite!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that. Japanese alphabet is made up of a combination of 1 consonant and 1 vowel, which means the total will be more than 70 (5 vowels times 14 consonants)!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, there are 2 sets of writing system<\/strong> for these letters: Hiragana and Katakana<\/strong> (I’ll talk about this in different article), which makes them more than 140<\/strong> in total! But don’t worry, Hiragana and Katakana are different in writing, but the same in pronunciation<\/strong>, so all you have to know is these 70 sounds or so.<\/p>\n

Still looks too much?<\/p>\n

Japanese alphabet is very structured<\/strong> unlike English, so if you remember all the vowels and the consonants with a few exceptions, you can say all alphabet easily.<\/p>\n

All you need to remember is 5 vowels<\/strong>:\u00a0“a<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>“i<\/span>” “u<\/span>” “e<\/span>” “o<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and 14 consonants<\/strong>: “K<\/span>” “S<\/span>” “T<\/span>” “N<\/span>” “H<\/span>” “M<\/span>” “Y<\/span>” “R<\/span>(L<\/span>)” “W<\/span>”\u00a0“G<\/span>” “Z<\/span>” “D<\/span>” “B<\/span>” “P<\/span>” and\u00a0“N\u00a0(exception).\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Each vowel is pronounced as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

“a<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0sounds like “ah”<\/strong> as in “fa<\/span>ther”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“i<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0sounds like “ee”<\/strong> as in “e<\/span>at”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“u<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0sounds like “oo”<\/strong> as in “foo<\/span>d”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“e<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>sounds like “eh”<\/strong> as in “pe<\/span>t”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“o<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0sounds like “oh”<\/strong> as in “ho<\/span>pe”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Let’s take a look at how it works.<\/p>\n

As I said earlier, it will be all combination of 1 consonant with 1 vowel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For example, if you look at the consonant “K<\/span>,”<\/strong> all the letters that include “K<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0will be a combination of consonant “K<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and each vowel “a\u201d<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0“i<\/span>” “u<\/span>” “e<\/span>” “o<\/span>.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0That makes up “K<\/span>a<\/span>” “K<\/span>i<\/span>” “K<\/span>u<\/span>” “K<\/span>e<\/span>” “K<\/span>o<\/span>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

This applies to all the consonants except “Y<\/span>” “W<\/span>” and the last “N<\/span>.\u201d<\/strong> The “Y<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>and “W<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>have fewer vowels to make up letters and the last “N<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0doesn’t go with any vowels.<\/p>\n

In total, there are 46 letters<\/strong> in Japanese alphabet.<\/p>\n

Here is a chart of Japanese Alphabet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
N<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nWa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nRa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nYa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nMa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nHa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nNa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSa<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nK<\/span>a<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\na<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nRi<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nMi<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nHi<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nNi<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTi<\/span> (Chi<\/span>)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSi<\/span> (Shi<\/span>)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nK<\/span>i<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\ni<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nRu<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nYu<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nMu<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nHu<\/span> (Fu<\/span>)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nNu<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTu<\/span> (Tsu<\/span>)<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSu<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nK<\/span>u<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nu<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\nRe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nMe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nHe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nNe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSe<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nK<\/span>e<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\ne<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nWo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nRo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nYo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nMo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nHo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nNo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSo<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nK<\/span>o<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\no<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

You might notice a couple of things from the chart.<\/p>\n

First of all, yes, we write from top to bottom and from right to left<\/strong>. (We also write just like English.)<\/p>\n

So when you read the chart, you need to read from “a<\/span>” to “o<\/span>,” then “K<\/span>a<\/span>” to “K<\/span>o<\/span>,”<\/span><\/strong> and end with “N<\/span>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is how we Japanese learn this chart at school.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A<\/span>” “K<\/span>a<\/span>” “S<\/span>a<\/span>” “T<\/span>a<\/span>” “N<\/span>a<\/span>” “H<\/span>a<\/span>” “M<\/span>a<\/span>” “Y<\/span>a<\/span>” “R<\/span>a<\/span>(L<\/span>a<\/span>)” “W<\/span>a<\/span>” “N<\/span>\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you memorize these letters, all you have to do is to change the vowel to “i<\/span>” “u<\/span>” “e<\/span>” “o<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>respectively.<\/p>\n

Second, did you notice some letters have parentheses<\/strong>? I wrote letters based on the rules I explained first, then wrote how we actually say or write in parentheses<\/strong>. As you might already know, there is no difference between L and R in Japanese<\/strong>. We don’t distinguish when we say “wrong” and “long” or “right” and “light.” I’ll talk about these sounds that don’t exist or are different in Japanese language more later.<\/p>\n

Finally, did you find “G<\/span>” “Z<\/span>” “D<\/span>” “B<\/span>” and “P<\/span>\u201d<\/strong>? These are not on the basic alphabet chart because they are extension of the basic chart<\/strong>. I will talk about them in How Many Letters are in Japanese Alphabet? (Extension)<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English alphabet consists of 5 vowels and 21 consonants, which makes 26 letters in total. Japanese alphabet consists of 5 vowels and 14 consonants (so… Read More“How Many Letters are in Japanese Alphabet? (Basic)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"1279","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hiragana-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9h0T5-kD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}