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HIRAGANA PART 2

Have you mastered the vowels? Don't worry if they aren't second nature yet. You are doing well!

Today's lesson will teach the 'K' line.  With last time's lesson (the vowels a-i-u-e-o) and today's you can learn many new words. But first let's take a look at the 'K' line ka-ki-ku-ke-ko.

Here is a review of the 5 vowel sounds.  a, i, u, e, o.  

あ - a    - as in fAther, Ah
い - i    - as in fEEt
う - u    - as in fOOd
え - e    - as in eh? or hAte
お - o    - knOw  

Make sure you have the vowel sounds down pat. If not it will mess up everything because all the other letters are based on the vowel sounds!

Again let's look at 5 more letters (the 2nd row on the picture to the right).  And again to aid memorization, make silly associations to go with them.

か - ka    - as in CAr
き- ki    - as in KEY
く- ku    - as in COol
け- ke    - as in CAve
こ- ko    - as in COld

MY SILLY ASSOCIATIONS: (What do the characters look like to you?)

か - I remembered it because it looks like a 'K' - well sort of...
き - It looks like a skeleton KEY
く - It looks like paKU man (Pac-man)
け - It looks like an entrance to a CAve
こ - It looked like a 'COke can' to me...

STOP!!!

Did you write the above hiragana 10 times? Did you sound them out as well? Well, do it again! And then take the following test & Javascript quiz...

TEST
How do you read these Hiragana characters?

かき    ____________    This means persimmon (the fruit)
おおき ____________    This means big
く    _____________   This means 9
えき       _____________    This means a train station
あき  _____________ This means Fall (season)
かお   ______________ This means face
いく   ______________ This means to go
くうこう ______________ This means airport

NOTE: In くうこう the う makes the previous sound longer. For example: く is just 'ku' but くう is 'kuu' (pronounced longer in duration that just 'ku') Remember this but don't feel bad if you forget -- you will get it eventually!

Click here to check your answers

NOW TAKE A QUIZ ON THE HIRAGANA YOU HAVE LEARNED!
There are 8 questions. Gambatte!

INSTRUCTIONS: I will test your knowledge by giving you a Hiragana in the left box.
Type the sounds in roman characters in the box on the right and press Tab to submit your answer.
Nihongo-san will tell you if you were right or wrong.
Use the Tab key or the Continue button to continue. USE ONLY LOWERCASE --> like this


is...

Nihongo-san says:

Note: This fantastic quiz was originally created by Kerri R. Schiller...Homepage
URL: http://www.oocities.org/SiliconValley/7116/jv_quiz.html

Gambatte!

ANSWERS:

　

かき    kaki    This means persimmon (the fruit)
おおき  ooki This means big
く    ku   This means 9
えき       eki     This means a train station
あき   aki This means Fall (season)
かお   kao  This means face
いく   iku  This means to go
くうこう kuukou This means airport

　

Click here to take the Quiz