The first step you should put into consideration when learning the alphabet, is that the Japanese

ALPHABET is in the form of a table of characters.

The first step in reading the table is to go from left to right like this:

--------> ! " # $ %

a i u e o

If you are so new to the language that you don't even know how to pronounce these basic characters, they are pronounced like this:

&a = ah (ex. tall)

" = i = ee (ex. sheep) # = u = oo (ex. food) $ = e = eh (ex. edible) % = o = oh (ex. phone)

so now you have the basic reading of the top of the Japanese Alphabet table from left to right down. Be sure you have this order memorized because its extremely important even if it does seem simple.

Every single row in the Japanese alphabet table is read in this exact order (left to right a, i, u, e, o), however there is a second step to memorizing your Japanese alphabet.

There is also a certain order the alphabet that goes down vertically. This is what it looks like:

| | | | | | | | | | | V

! (a) ' (ka) ( (sa) ) (ta) * (na) + (ha)* , (ma) - (ya) . (ra/la)* / (wa)* 0 (n)

* I will get to an explanation of the characters with astricts by them later.

Now the trick behind memorizing this is......well, there is no trick. The best way I learned this was saying the table over and over again like a tongue twister until I was finally able to memorize the order, such as this:

a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya, ra, wa, n

Japanese people say both the verticle (a, ka, sa, ta,.....) and horizontal (a i u e o) versions VERY fast. When my Japanese I teacher taught us the alphabet he would say it so fast it sounded like a jumbled mix of AIUEO like it was a word in itself. XD

I wouldn't particularly recommend you trying to say every letter together THAT fast because it COULD mix you up as a new learner to the alphabet. I think its good to take in the table in little bits at a time and then try to put it all together. What I always did was take the first five characters (a, ka, sa, ta, na) and sat there and said out loud AND mentally that order to myself until I could get it down REALLY fast.

After that, I would take the last six characters and practice saying those in my head and out loud until I could finally say them fast. Finally I put the first five characters and the last six to see if I could say them together.

It takes A LOT of practice, but I think learning the order first is the MOST important. If you can learn to do that, then you can easily start memorizing characters.

This method works with both Hiragana AND Katakana.

1. This is what the entire Hiragana alphabet chart looks like:

!"#$% '1234 (5678 )9:;<

*=>?@ +ABCD ,EFGH I J

.KLMN / 0 O

2. This is the Katakana chart:

P U Z _ d i n s v { }

Q V [ ` e j o

R W \ a f k p t

S X ] b g l q

T Y ^ c h m r u

z |

3. In romanji both of the charts would look like this:

a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa shi su se so ta chi tsu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi fu he ho ma mi mu me mo ya yu yo

ra ri ru re ro wa n wo

Do you see pattern it makes horizontally and vertically?

Every letter vertically will end with either a i u e o and every first letter horizonally is the same as the first letter in the beginning of the row (a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa n).

If you can memorize these two charts using these hints for self study you will be in a good pace to learn Japanese MUCH more quickly and effeciently.

**** For those of you who were curious as to why I astricts next to some letters here is your reason:

The line containing the characters + misconcepting.

(ha), . (ra), and /(wa) can be a little

Japanese people actually pronounce +

A B

D a little differently from

English pronunciation. Written in romanji, the most common spelling you will see of these characters in order is

ha hi fu he ho

however, it can sometimes be seen as

fa fi fu fe fo

It is usually written with the "h"s because Japanese pronounce ALL of these letters (yes, including B/fu) to an English speaker's eyes sound more like "h"s rather than "f"s. As English speakers we tend to emphasize the "F" sound with our teeth touching our bottom lip. However, for the Japanese (ha hi fu he ho) you are basically doing the same thing, only NOT touching your teeth to your bottom lip, so it sounds more like a "HA" "HI" "HU" "HE" "HO" rather than "FA" "FI" "FU" "FE" "FO"

I would also like to note that + (ha) is often times used as a topic marker and sentences. In those cases, the sound of "ha" turns into "wa" but looks EXACTLY the same. Here is the best, most simple example I can give you:

40=9+ (Konnichiwa) You NEVER see anyone spell it "Konnichiha" because the + "wa" is actually a topic marker. The + (wa) topic marker usually comes just after the first word in a sentence (if the sentence is being emphasized, but thats something for later). Just know that SOMETIMES "ha" can turn into "wa" and you'll be set.

A similar occurance happens with .

w L M

N (ra, ri, ru, re, ro).

Although in Romanji we often see these characters with "R"s as their first character, the sound is more of an "L" sound. To the english speaker we SHOULD be saying something closer to "la li lu le lo" to make the Japanese pronunciation more accurate. In all actuality the sound is a mix between "R" and "L", but when learning Japanese it is recommended you use more of an "L" sound than R.

In the end I personally feel like its not much of a difference no matter how you say it because a lot of Japanese people seem to have more of a stronger "R" sound...but then again, everyone is different and there are plenty of Japanese people who have a closer sounding "L" than others. I just feel obligated to point out the appropriate way of pronunciation.

Finally the line with //wa in it. There is abosolutely nothing wrong with //wa but I should point out the O (wo) in the same line. WO is NOT pronounced as you see it with the W infront of the O. Wo is simply pronounced "OH" because it is mostly used as grammer when you make sentences.