Free hiragana and katakana chart

What's inside

• Hiragana: the 46 basicsEach character with its sound and a picture to hang it on, like あ, a sword stabbing an apple: ah!
• Hiragana: the rest゛ and ゜ for ga, za, da, ba and pa, plus small ゃゅょ combos and the small っ pause. No new shapes to learn.
• Hiragana: practiceReal words in rising levels, from あい (ai, love) up to full sentences. Cover the answers with a strip of paper and read aloud.
• Katakana: the 46 basicsThe same picture method for every katakana, from ア, an axe, onward.
• Katakana: the restThe same rules, plus the long-vowel ー and the extra combos used for foreign words, names and brands.
• Katakana: practiceLoanwords you can already guess, like アニメ (anime) and コーヒー (coffee), in rising levels.

How to use it

1. Learn one row a day.
2. Say the sound, see the picture, write it five times.
3. Cover the grey answers on the practice pages and read aloud, then slide the paper down to check.
4. Hunt for the characters in real subtitles with Kitsumi, where reading them soon becomes automatic.

Then read real subtitles

Kana stick when you keep meeting them. Kitsumi puts native subtitles on YouTube, Netflix and anime sites, with the reading and meaning of any word under your cursor. See the quick start guide, or more free printables.

Questions