Question
I just started learning Japanese and my teacher keeps telling me to memorize the hiragana chart before anything else. I’ve seen the grid online but I don’t really get how it’s organized or where to start. What is the hiragana chart?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
五十音図（ごじゅうおんず）gojuuonzu
The hiragana chart (lit. “fifty-sounds diagram”)
Great question to ask early — once this grid clicks, beginner studies move much faster. The chart lists the 46 basic hiragana, the script Japanese uses for native words, connector bits, and verb and adjective endings. Katakana (mostly foreign words) is its sister chart.
The grid has two axes. The columns are the five vowels a, i, u, e, o. The rows step through the consonants k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, plus a standalone n at the end. So ka sits where the k-row meets the a-column. A few quirks pop up (shi in the s-row, chi and tsu in the t-row), but the pattern holds.
My tip: learn the vowel column first, then sweep down one consonant row at a time. Ten short rows is far easier than 46 random shapes.
