Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
By clicking Join Now, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive our email communications, which you may opt out at any time.
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
By clicking Join Now, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive our email communications, which you may opt out at any time.
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san konnichiwa.)
Hi everyone and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com’s kantan kana. In the last lesson, we learned the Hiragana characters な(na), に(ni), ぬ(nu), ね(ne) and の(no). If you are not feeling confident about those, review the last lesson before continuing on.
You’ve already learned 25 Hiragana characters. So let’s make it 30. We will start with は(ha). 1, 2, 3. The first stroke has a はね(hane) at the end of it. This character is sometimes pronounced differently but we will talk about that in another lesson. Also は(ha) looks a lot like け(ke) or with the curve at the end. Try not to confuse them.
Here is はは(haha), ”mother”
And here is はな(hana), “flower”.
Next we have ひ(hi). Write it all with one stroke, over, down, around and like this at the end.
ひと(hito) means “person”.
ひくい(hikui) means low.
Now let’s move on to ふ(fu). ふ(fu) is written with four strokes. 1, 2, 3, 4. Also it’s pronounced ふ not “hu” or “fu”. Your teeth don’t touch your bottom lip. If you put your hand in front of your mouth, you should feel a puff of air when you say it.
Here is ふく(fuku) which means “clothes”
And ふた(futa) which means “lid”
Next is へ(he) should all be one stroke. The second part should be longer than the first. There is also another way to pronounce へ(he) but we will save that for another lesson.
へそ(heso) means bellybutton.
And へた(heta) means unskilled.
Our last character today is ほ(ho). 1, 2, 3, 4. This character looks a lot like は(ha) that we talked about earlier. The difference is ほ(ho) has an extra line on top right here.
One example of ほ(ho) is ほね(hone) which means bone.
Another example is ほそい(hosoi) which means slender.
Now let’s have a short quiz. I will show you the Hiragana and you read it. Bonus points if you remember what it means.
はな(hana) “flower”
ひと(hito), “person”
ほそい(hosoi), “slim”
Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. Can you think of any Japanese place names that use the Hiragana that we have learned so far? Now you can write ふくおか(Fukuoka) in Southern Japan and あかさか(Akasaka), a district in Tokyo where the JapanesePod101.com office is. For extra practice, find a map of Japan in English and see which place names you can write in Hirgana. Pretty soon, you will be able to write them all.
Have you ever seen a くま(kuma) in the wild? くま(kuma) means “Bear” and we will learn how to write that word in Hiragana and a lot more in the next lesson. See you then.

Comments

Hide