✶ The sound grid

かな・カナ The Kana Grid

Japanese isn't written letter-by-letter — it's written mora-by-mora, and the kana lay those moras out in a grid: five vowels across, ten consonant series down. Learn the shape of the grid and you learn the sound system. Both syllabaries — hiragana and katakana — share it exactly.

Toggle the syllabary, show romaji, or tap a vowel column / consonant row to light up that part of the system. Click any kana for detail. The base grid (gojūon) is 46 kana; voiced (dakuten/handakuten) adds 25; contracted (yōon) adds 33.