Hiragana や・ら・わ・ん, dakuten, and small ゃゅょ

Two sheets, one morning. Small ょ stays small.

In this lesson you will

• Write やゆよ, らりるれろ, and わをん
• Read を as o and ん as its own beat
• Read がざだば as voiced, and きょう as one mora with small ょ

Today’s scene

How it works

や ゆ よ are three, not five. There is no yi or ye in modern hiragana. らりるれろ is the row English speakers want to turn into L or R; Japanese ら is neither. わ を ん close the basic set. を marks an object and sounds like お. ん is a full beat: んですか has a pulse English “n” often skips.

Dakuten are the two dots. か→が, さ→ざ, た→だ, は→ば. The rest of those rows follow: ぎじぐげご, じず, でど, びぶべぼ. You already use だ inside ください and です. Today you may look at the dots instead of treating those words as pictures. Handakuten (the circle on ぱぴぷぺぽ) exists; notice it on a menu later. This page’s job is the two dots.

Small ゃゅょ ride after き し ち に ひ み り. きゃ きゅ きょ are one beat each, not ki-ya. きょう (today) is kyo-o, two beats, not ki-yo-u as three. Writing きよう by accident is how students invent a word they did not mean.

Payoff words: わたし (I), やま (mountain), ください (please), きょう (today), さくら (the ら that かさ-week postponed). が is also the subject marker you will meet in beginner grammar — today it is a sound. Do not swap は and が at random.

This is the morning the hiragana chart stops being a poster and starts being a room. You already have vowels, かさ, たな, はま. What remains is やゆよ, the ら row, わをん, the two dots that voice a consonant, and the small ゃゅょ that refuse to be two beats. We will still speak in です and ます. We will still say おはようございます. Completing a chart is not a license to switch into clipped anime talk.

や ゆ よ are only three. Modern Japanese does not give you yi or ye as hiragana partners. Students hunt for the missing two and invent them. Do not. や is ya, ゆ is yu, よ is yo, each one beat. よ is the one that must stay large when it is large, because a smaller ょ is a different machine. Write よ extra clearly once. Then write a small ょ beside it and stare until your hand agrees they are not the same size.

らりるれろ is the row that starts arguments in English. Japanese ら is not English L and not English R. It is a single Japanese sound. If your first language is Korean, ㄹ is a cousin, still not a clone — Japanese ら does not split into two letters for position. If you speak Spanish, do not tap ら as a hard rre. If you speak English, stop choosing a team. Listen, imitate, record. り will collide with い and with ひ in fast ink; copy り slowly. る is a loop that students open into ろ. れ is not ね; ね has a hook れ does not. ろ is not る. Sit with る and ろ until they argue.

わ を ん look like leftovers. They are not. わ is wa, the letter you were forbidden to substitute for particle は. Now you may write わ inside わたし, わかる, わかりました. Particle は remains は. Letter わ remains わ. Two shapes, two jobs, both said wa in different sentences — Japanese is allowed to do this. を is the object marker. It is written を and pronounced お. English “wo” is a souvenir. Drop it. In the dialogue, それを、どうぞ is a complete polite move: take that one, please. ん is a mora. It occupies time. ほん is not “ho” plus a leftover N you swallow. なんですか is four beats if you count す as part of です — anyway, ん gets a pulse. Students who stay in romaji miss ん and then miss length. You did not stay in romaji. Give ん a finger tap of its own.

Dakuten are two dots at the top right. They voice the consonant. か becomes が, き becomes ぎ, and so on. さ becomes ざ; し becomes じ. た becomes だ; ち becomes ぢ in theory, but everyday Japanese usually writes じ instead of ぢ, and ず instead of づ. Do not collect ぢ/づ trivia as a personality. Know that だ is legal now. Two lessons ago we forbade you to guess だ from English da. Today the dots are the permission. は becomes ば. The rest of the ば row is びぶべぼ. You have been saying ください for a week: だ is sitting in the middle. You have been saying です: で is て plus dots. Look. The formula becomes a spelled word.

Handakuten is a small circle: ぱぴぷぺぽ. You will see it on パン in katakana next series, and on a few hiragana words. Notice the circle so you do not call it a broken dakuten. This lesson’s drill is the two dots, especially が ざ だ ば as four family names you can point at.

Small ゃゅょ are the other half of finishing. They ride after き し ち に ひ み り (and the dotted versions ぎ じ び ぴ). きょ is one beat. きょう (today) is that beat plus う. If you write きよう with a full-size よ, you have written a different spelling. In real Japanese きよう can be another word entirely. The compare box is not a trick. It is a warning about prideful handwriting that “makes the small letter easier to see” by making it large. Easy to see and wrong is still wrong. しゃ しゅ しょ, ちゃ ちゅ ちょ will show up in names and in ください’s cousins. You do not need a hundred contractions today. You need きょう, and the rule: small means glued.

There is also small っ, a stop that doubles the next consonant: きって, がっこう. It is a sibling of small kana, not this page’s homework. If you see a small っ, do not say a vowel there. Pause. Then the next consonant. Mention, park, move.

Payoff: わたし is readable. やま is readable. かみ (paper) is readable. きょう is readable. さくら is readable — kana-03 asked you to wait for ら, and ら is here. Read さくら as a word on a paper, not as a textbook heroine. ください is readable as dots plus letters you own. を is usable. ん is usable. That is enough to hold a polite morning and to walk into katakana without pretending hiragana was a children’s toy.

Grammar you must not steal: が as subject marker versus は as topic marker is a beginner problem, not a kana-row problem. Today が is a sound. を is a marker you may copy in それを because the dialogue needs an object. You will get a proper を plus ます lesson later. Do not build ten transitive verbs tonight.

If your first language is Korean, やゆよ are not 야유요 clones in spelling, even when they feel close in the mouth; write Japanese. ん is not 받침. If you speak Mandarin, small ょ is not a pinyin y you add for decoration. If you speak English, を is o, ら is not “la/ra homework”, ん is a beat. If you speak Spanish, や is not ll. If you speak Arabic, が is not a heavy qaf; it is voiced g as Japanese g. If you speak French, ん is not a nasal vowel mark; it is a mora that can be n, ng, or a nasal stop depending on what follows — for now, give it time and a clear close.

The overlapping sheets are the scene: きょうの、かみです. One sheet is the teacher’s. One is for you. それを、どうぞ. That is Japanese as a room, not as a dump of よる / らいしゅう / かわ. Extra copies you may take home: よる (night), そら needs ら — そら (sky) is now readable, かわ (river), でんわ waits for で and ん which you now have. Still, the dialogue stays on the table. Practice loop: write やゆよ, らりるれろ, わをん; add dots to かさたば until がざだば appear; write きょう with a truly small ょ; read わたし, ください, さくら. Tomorrow the lines get angular: katakana ア and カ, menus, stations, words that arrived from abroad. Hiragana does not retire. It becomes the glue inside です and ます for the rest of the course.

や ら わ ん

や ya · ゆ yu · よ yo
ら ra · り ri · る ru · れ re · ろ ro
わ wa · を o (object) · ん n (its own beat)
を is said お. Do not say “wo” with an English W.

Dakuten and small ゃゅょ

Dots: が ざ だ ば (and the rest of those voiced rows)
Small: きゃ きゅ きょ — one beat, not two
きょう today · わたし I · さくら sakura (now readable)

Sentences you can use

Close, but not this

OK きょう
NG きよう

Small ょ glues き and よ into one beat. Full-size よ in きよう is a different spelling and, in real Japanese, a different word. Cute handwriting that enlarges ょ is not cute. It is a mistake.

Say it out loud

Hiragana can hold a polite morning now. Next we start katakana — ア and カ — the angular script on menus and station signs. Keep writing ん and を until they stop feeling like leftovers.

Write one sentence today