Five Shapes That Make Every Other Kana
Learn the five vowels and you can already type あい and うえ — and every kana after this is just a consonant plus one of these.
Why these five first
Every kana in Japanese is built on one of five vowel sounds: あ, い, う, え, お. Learn them cold and the rest of the chart is just consonants bolted onto them. That is not a motivational line — it is literally how the syllabary is organised.
The five sounds
Say them slowly: a, i, u, e, o.
- あ sounds like the a in "father" — open, flat.
- い sounds like the ee in "see" — tight, short.
- う is the tricky one. It is not the oo in "food". It is a compressed, almost whispered u, lips barely rounded. Listen to うえ and you will hear it — the u is quiet, the e carries.
- え sounds like the e in "bet".
- お sounds like the o in "or" without the r.
Do not worry about pitch accent yet. Get the vowel quality right and you are ahead of most people who have been "studying" for a month.
The five shapes
Each vowel has a hiragana and a katakana. Hiragana is for native words and grammar; katakana for loanwords, emphasis, and names. Learn them as pairs.
| Sound | Hiragana | Katakana | |—|—|—| | a | あ | ア | | i | い | イ | | u | う | ウ | | e | え | エ | | o | お | オ |
Notice that あ and お share a similar skeleton — a horizontal stroke, a vertical, and a loop. い and り are cousins, but り comes later. For now, just look at the five. Write each one ten times, saying the sound aloud as you write.
Read your first words
You can already read real Japanese words. These are all common, all made only of vowels:
- あい (ai) — love
- うえ (ue) — above, on top
- いえ (ie) — house
- おい (oi) — hey (informal)
- あおい (aoi) — blue
Read them aloud. Then cover the romaji and read them again. That is the whole drill.
Type them
If you have a Japanese keyboard, switch to kana input and type each word. If you are on a phone, install a Japanese keyboard and do the same. Typing あい takes two keystrokes: a, i. Typing うえ: u, e. The mapping is direct for vowels — one key, one kana.
Type this sentence: あおい いえ (aoi ie) — a blue house. You just wrote a phrase.
Match the sound
Say each word aloud and check the meaning:
- いえ — is this house or no?
- うえ — above or below?
- あい — love or blue?
If you got house, above, love, you are reading. If not, say them again — the sounds are regular, so the mistake is almost always speed, not knowledge.
A note on え and お
Both are easy to confuse with each other in katakana: エ and オ. エ has a horizontal bar and a vertical; オ has a cross and a hook. Write them side by side until the difference is boring. Boring is the goal.
What you can do now
You can read and type あい, うえ, いえ, おい, あおい. You know the five vowel sounds and the ten shapes that carry them. That is a real foundation, not a warm-up.
Tomorrow adds a consonant. The question is: which one, and what happens to the vowels when it arrives?
None of this is being saved
Signed in, we would remember every character you have looked at — and write you reading you can actually get through, built from exactly those.
Remember this 要点
The five vowels あ い う え お are the foundation of every kana — learn the sounds and shapes cold, and the rest of the chart is just consonants attached to them.
Today's words 語彙
Three questions 確認
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Create free account Log inTomorrow a consonant arrives and the five vowels stop being alone — but which consonant, and why does it turn あい into something you can eat?
Read day 2 →