I Speak Japanese

Ive got a quick question, which is more important Katakana or Hirgana for learning first? See im just getting into the alphabet so I was getting confused on which comes first. Or is it Kanji you want to learn first?

Hiragana should be learned first.

what is the difference between Katakana and Hirgana?

@Msmagnificent
Katakana is for foreign words (i.e., names, etc) and hiragana is for words of japanese origin (i.e., chakuseki which means “sit”, would be spelled using the characters above, hiragana)

they’re both important, but when in Japan you’ll likely see more hiragana. alot of the time their mixed together which can cause confusion if you don’t know katakana.
like said before, hiragana is used for japanese originating words (watashi = I, shinbun = newspaper, denwa bango = phone number, etc..)
and katakana is used for foreign words (toide = toilet, tobaku = tobacco, etc…)

i’ve a question, on the list there are also shown kanji from which the characters originated, do we have to learn them?do people use it?

i’ve a question,like name banneza what character it means..

i speak japanese a littile bit!!!!you now the gifu city!!

I was going to use your website untill I noticed mistakes with your hiragana chart. Fu should be Hu. Wi and We should be in other sounds chart.

@anat167

You need to learn them only to the point of their pronunciation and what they mean. They no longer really hold meaning as to what they were derived for to hiragana. Since the “a” kanji is now used as part of many kanji/phrases - yasui (安い), anshin (安心）. I hope that makes it clear. Just learn the pure hiragana and kanji comes later.

@furanku Thanks for the comment. There are actually a few styles of romaji (the most common being the Revised Hepburn, Nihon, and Kunrei Romanization styles) and the chart above just shows one type. That’s actually why using romaji can be so tricky. Hope this helps to clarify what you’re seeing!