Learn how to read and write hiragana characters, た, ち, つ, て, と
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| 皆さん、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 さ(sa), し(shi), す(su), せ(se) and そ(so). If you are not confident about those, review the last lesson before continuing on here. By the end of this lesson, you will have learned 20 hiragana characters. |
| Let’s get started with た(ta). 1, 2, 3, 4. Notice that the right side is the small version of こ(ko). This character is easy to remember if you make one small change. た(ta) |
| Here is たけ(take) “Bamboo”. Here is たこ(tako) ”Octopus”. |
| Moving on, this is ち(chi). You probably noticed that this is pretty similar to previous character さ(sa). Other than being a mirror image, you never see the last chalk of ち(chi) split into two. It may be pretty hard to keep these two kana straight. Here is one tip to help you. Here is the word for happiness, さち(sachi). This is really easy to remember. If you think of this part as the eyes, this as the nose and this as the mouth, then you have two happy friends talking to each other. When you come across a さ(sa) or a ち(chi) in the future, make this mental image to help you remember which is which. |
| ちいさい(chiisai), ”small” |
| くち(kuchi), “mouth”. |
| If your head hurts from さ(sa) and ち(chi), don’t worry, the last three characters are really easy. Here is つ(tsu). Just one stroke and if you were to add one more line, it will become 2, 2...つ(tsu). |
| つち(tsuchi), “dirt” |
| くつ(kutsu), “shoe” |
| Does つ(tsu) sound familiar? Don’t confuse it with す(su) which you learned in the last lesson. Listen carefully to the difference つ(tsu), す(su). |
| Here is て(te) means “hand” and it makes it easy to remember because it looks like the lines on your right hand. |
| かてい(katei), “Household” |
| ちかてつ(chikatetsu), “Subway” |
| Our last character today is と(to). 1, 2. This character kind of looks like a toe. |
| いと(ito), “thread” |
| とけい(tokei), ”clock” |
| 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. |
| たけ(take), “Bamboo” |
| くち(kuchi), “Mouth” |
| ちかてつ(chikatetsu), “Subway” |
| Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. Occasionally you will see Japanese written in Roman letters for beginners. This way of writing is called Romaji and there are several different types of Romanization systems but you won’t have to worry about any of this once you’ve learned the kana. |
| Do you have いぬ(inu) or ねこ(neko) at your house? In the next lesson, you will learn how to write daunting cat in Hiragana. So see you next time. |
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