Free Hiragana & Katakana Trainer

Yomikana is Yomimaru's free, login-free guided path from zero to reading all 208 kana — 104 hiragana and 104 katakana. Follow one journey, chapter by chapter: learn each row with animated stroke-order guides, memory-hook mnemonics, and native audio, then lock it in with spaced-recall quizzes, a match game, and a look-alike drill for the characters beginners mix up. Your progress is saved in your browser — no account is needed to start.

The path takes absolute beginners through hiragana first, then katakana, mastering a handful of characters at a time and picking up real words along the way. The full chart below lists every character with its rōmaji reading and a mnemonic to help it stick; open the interactive trainer to walk the path, hear each sound, and watch the stroke order animate until every kana is automatic.

Hiragana chart — all 104 characters

Katakana chart — all 104 characters

Extended katakana for foreign sounds

Beyond the 104 core katakana above, modern Japanese uses a small set of extended combinations to spell sounds that native Japanese lacks — mostly in recent loanwords. A large base kana is followed by a small vowel kana (for example フ + small ァ = ファ, fa). These are not part of the core kana you drill in the trainer, but you will see them everywhere in katakana loanwords, so they are worth recognising:

Also essential in katakana is the long-vowel mark ー (chōonpu): a horizontal bar that lengthens the vowel before it. It is not a syllable of its own — it just holds the previous vowel for one extra beat. For example コーヒー is read ko-o-hi-i (kōhī, “coffee”) and ラーメン is rā-men. Hiragana does not use ー; it lengthens vowels by adding a vowel kana instead.

Gojūon chart — the classic a/i/u/e/o grid

The same base kana laid out as the traditional gojūon (五十音) grid: five vowel columns (a, i, u, e, o) across the top, consonant rows down the side. Blank squares are historic gaps that never had a sound (yi, ye, wu, wi, we). This is the shape most hiragana and katakana charts use — read the tables above for mnemonics and example words, and use this grid as the at-a-glance map.

Download a free printable hiragana & katakana chart (PDF)

Want a copy to print or keep on your phone? Download the full 104-character hiragana and 104-character katakana charts — every kana with its rōmaji, laid out as the classic gojūon grid plus the dakuten, handakuten, and yōon (combination) sounds. Free, no signup, no email required. Print it A4 or save the image for offline reference.

• Hiragana chart (PDF) · PNG
• Katakana chart (PDF) · PNG

Both charts are generated directly from the same kana data that powers the trainer above, so the readings always match.

Last updated July 2026.

How rōmaji maps to kana (the tricky readings)

The tables above show the rōmaji for every kana. Most are regular — か is ka, ま is ma — but a handful break the pattern and trip people up. Here are the ones to watch:

• し = shi (not "si"), ち = chi (not "ti"), つ = tsu (not "tu"), and ふ = fu (not "hu"). These four are exceptions in the s, t, and h rows — the chart already lists the correct reading for each.
• Small っ (sokuon) doubles the following consonant: きって is kitte, にっき is nikki. It is written smaller than a normal つ and is never read on its own.
• Katakana ー (chōonpu) lengthens the vowel before it: コーヒー is kōhī, ラーメン is rāmen. It only appears in katakana; hiragana lengthens vowels by adding a vowel kana instead.
• づ / ぢ vs ず / じ — づ and ぢ are read zu and ji, the same as ず and じ, but are rare and appear mostly in compound words (つづく tsuzuku) and rendaku. When in doubt, ず and じ are the common spellings.

Every reading, including these, is drilled in the quiz below — you never have to memorize the exceptions from a list.

How to type hiragana and katakana on your keyboard

Once you can read kana on the trainer above, the next step is typing them. You do not type kana directly — you type rōmaji on a normal keyboard and a Japanese IME (Input Method Editor) converts it to kana as you go. Here is how to set it up and the rules that trip beginners up.

Enable a Japanese IME

The IME ships with every modern operating system — you just switch it on:

• Windows — add the Japanese language, which installs the built-in Microsoft IME, then switch to it from the taskbar language button (or with the Windows + Space shortcut).
• macOS — in System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources, add Japanese and pick the Romaji input mode, then switch inputs from the menu-bar flag (or with Control + Space).
• iOS & Android — add a Japanese keyboard in settings; the rōmaji (“QWERTY kana”) layout works the same way as on desktop.

Type rōmaji, get kana

With the IME active, you type the rōmaji reading and it becomes kana instantly: type ka and you get か, shi gives し, tsu gives つ, kyo gives きょ. The IME chooses hiragana or katakana based on its current mode — switch to katakana mode (or press the katakana conversion key) for loanwords.

The special cases

A few sounds do not map one-to-one from rōmaji. These are the ones to learn:

• ん — type nn to force the syllabic ん, or a single n works when the next letter is a consonant (kanji → かんじ).
• Small っ (sokuon) — just double the consonant: kitte → きって, kk makes the small っ. You can also type xtu or ltu to insert a standalone small っ.
• Long katakana vowel ー — press the minus / hyphen key (-) to type the chōonpu ー: ko-hi- in katakana mode gives コーヒー.
• Small vowels — prefix with x or l for a standalone small kana: xa → ぁ, used to build extended katakana like fa → ファ.

Convert kana to kanji with the space bar

Once your kana is on screen, pressing the space bar converts it to kanji: the IME offers the most likely spelling and a list of alternatives you cycle through with space (or the arrow keys), then you press Enter to confirm. This is how all Japanese is typed — kana first, then convert. For pure kana, just press Enter without converting.

About the Yomikana kana trainer

Kana are the two Japanese syllabaries — hiragana and katakana — and they are the first thing to learn when starting Japanese. Yomikana turns them into one guided journey of short lessons: each chapter teaches a few characters through mnemonics that turn every shape into a memorable picture, animated stroke order, and native-speaker audio, then checks them with quick recall games. You go from zero to reading all 208 kana in days rather than weeks — and start reading real words as you go.

When you are ready to read real Japanese, Yomibunko's beginner shelf is a free set of graded texts you can read with mostly kana, and Yominews at N5 gives you real Japanese news with furigana over every kanji. Both are free and need no account.

Hiragana vs katakana: when to use each

A quick reference before you start drilling. Hiragana and katakana spell the exact same set of sounds — the 104 readings you see in the charts above (208 kana in total once you count katakana), including the voiced dakuten/handakuten and the yōon combos. The difference is when each script is used, not what it sounds like.

• Hiragana — native Japanese words, grammatical particles, and verb/adjective endings (okurigana). It is also the script used for furigana, the small reading aids printed above kanji.
• Katakana — loanwords, foreign names and place names, onomatopoeia, emphasis (like italics), and scientific or animal names.

Same sound, different script. These pairs show a native word written in hiragana beside a loanword written in katakana:

• すし (sushi, “Sushi”) is a native word in hiragana, while コーヒー (koohii, “Coffee”) is a loanword in katakana.
• ねこ (neko, “Cat”) is a native word in hiragana, while カメラ (kamera, “Camera”) is a loanword in katakana.
• さくら (sakura, “Cherry Blossom”) is a native word in hiragana, while テスト (tesuto, “Test”) is a loanword in katakana.

Both scripts appear in almost every Japanese sentence, which is why Yomikana teaches all of both — use the charts above as a reference and the quiz below to drill them. Once the two are automatic, easy Japanese texts for beginners are where they stop being a chart and start being reading.

How Yomikana teaches kana

Yomikana follows a deliberate learning method. Each character starts with its animated stroke order so you form it correctly, then a memory-hook mnemonic that turns the shape into a picture you can recall. New characters are checked with spaced-recall quizzes that resurface what you are about to forget, and the kana beginners confuse most are drilled directly in a look-alike discrimination exercise. Stroke order → mnemonic → spaced recall → look-alike drill: the same evidence-based sequence for every kana.

The trainer is built and maintained by Maxime Pitaval, and its method draws on Yomimaru's beginner guides: the ultimate beginner's guide to hiragana and katakana, how to use a free hiragana & katakana study tool, and what furigana is and how it helps beginners.

Kana practice modes — free hiragana & katakana practice online

Free hiragana and katakana practice online, no account and works on mobile. Pick how you want to drill: choose the full set or just one row — basic kana, dakuten, handakuten, or combination sounds (yōon) — answer by multiple choice or by typing the rōmaji, and your score, streak, and per-kana accuracy save in your browser.

Hiragana quiz

A spaced-recall hiragana quiz over all 104 hiragana: you see a character and recall its reading; the ones you miss resurface sooner until every kana is automatic.

Katakana quiz

The same recall quiz for all 104 katakana — practise the full set or a single row, dakuten, or combos.

Kana match game

Pair each kana to its rōmaji against the clock — a fast way to build automatic recognition.

Look-alike drill

Drill only the confusable sets — シ vs ツ, ソ vs ン, ね/れ/わ, さ/き — with their near-miss partners forced into the answer choices, so you learn to tell them apart.

Stroke-order practice

Watch each kana's animated stroke order and practise writing it in the correct sequence.

Test yourself: the free hiragana & katakana test

Take the full 104-character hiragana test or katakana test, or test just one row or the dakuten set. Instant scoring shows exactly which kana you missed — no signup, retake as often as you like.

A suggested pace: learn all kana in about 3 days

If you want a target, here is a fast three-day pace mapped straight onto the trainer above — each day is just a set of quiz rounds to run, not a lesson to read.

• Day 1 — the five vowels and the first few base rows (k, s, t). Run the hiragana quiz on those rows until they are automatic.
• Day 2 — finish the remaining base rows, then add the dakuten and handakuten sets. Quiz the full base + dakuten set together.
• Day 3 — the yōon combos, then the look-alike drill to lock in the characters beginners mix up (シ vs ツ, ソ vs ン, ね/れ/わ). Katakana follows the same three rounds.

Short daily sessions beat one long push — 15–20 minutes with the quiz is plenty.

Day 4 — read something real. Kana are only worth having if you use them. Japanese news written for N5 puts furigana over every kanji, so you can sound out a whole story the day you finish the chart, and the beginner reading shelf has short graded texts with the same furigana and tap-to-look-up.

Stroke order for common kana

Writing each kana in the correct order makes it faster to draw and easier to read. Here is the stroke order for five representative characters, including the katakana pair beginners confuse most — シ (shi) and ツ (tsu).

Hiragana & katakana: questions & answers