Lesson 2

Now, for everyone who still hasn't given up, running scared of the difficulty of the Japanese language, here comes Lesson 2. And if you thought we're gonna start learning words or grammar now, you're wrong - we're still not done with the writing systems. No, we're not starting Kanji or anything, we're still at Hiragana and Katakana :) Is there anyone who's memorized them by any chance? Didn't think so. I'm kidding of course, feel free to boast about your accomiplishments in the comments. Today's lesson is going to be short and easy. Did I hear someone say "hurray"?


In today's lesson we're gonna  learn how to get some additional syllables that aren't in the tables. That's pretty simple - just add two little strokes (or just dots, as my Japanese teacher did) and the sounds change as follows:

K  becomes G,
S      --->     Z, 
T      --->     D, 
H      --->     B. 

This way the kana ka, ki, ku, ke, ko become ga, gi, gu, ge, go and so on. It looks like that.

 か  =>  が　
き   =>　ぎ　
く 　 =>  ぐ 　
け   =>  げ　
こ　 =>  ご　


There are a few exeptions however. When you put two dots on SHI, instead of ZI, it becomes JI, and both SU and TSU become ZU. Usually, the ZU sound is represented by SU with two dots.


Only for the kana starting with H there is another way you can change them, and that is by adding a small circle in the place of the two dots. Then H changes into P. (example: ha => pa)

 は  => ぱ

This way of changing the kana applies to both Hiragana and Katakana.

Since I said this lesson was going to be short, and it turned out a little longer, I'm going to stop here to make sure I don't overload your brains with new information. For everyone who still hasn't given up: 

Good job, see you again next time!