Hiragana: N's H's B's and P's

This is the half way mark for hiragana. Today we will be learning next 10 characters. The N row, unlike the last 3 rows, doesn't take voice-marks, and so these characters will only have an "n" sound.



N as in noon

The H row, however, is a bit different from the past couple of rows. It does take the voice marks to make "b" sounds, but it is also the only row that will ever have a half-voice mark. A half-voice mark is the circle in the upper right hand corner. As you can see, it changes the sound of "h" to "p."





The only irregularity here is that "hu" is romanized as "fu" and has a slightly different sound.

H as in hope
F as in fan**
B as in bear
P as in poke

** This is pronounced by rounding your lips and then trying to pronounce F.

The H row has two very important kana. The letters "ha" and "he" have two different functions in Japanese. The postpositions "wa" and "e" which you have learned are actually written in Japanese with the characters "ha" and "he" respectively. I've seen many beginers to the language forgetting this rule and putting the hiragana for "wa" and "e" when they should be putting the characters for "ha" and "he" instead. Make sure you don't make the same mistake.

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