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Either if you have memorized the shape of Hiragana manually or by using mnemonics provided by our guide, you will still need to practice a lot of reading to lock them up to your long term memory. But yes, it’s not easy to gather material to practice Hiragana. So we try to create a page for you to practice your reading!
One of the best resource for beginners to practice reading are children’s book & easy to read manga. If you only want to choose one, the best one is from Ghibli’s picture book series. They are thick (over 150 pages), use simple sentences, equipped with furigana and not to mention, the price cost the same as a 10-20 pages children book! So worth to have~
In any case that you can’t get your hand on the books, you can use this page to practice reading! This page takes 2 part of Princess Kaguya story and layouted in a way so you can focus practicing Hiragana reading. We’ll keep adding more stories, so please look forward to them!
Important notes before you start
Treat these pages only as a reading practice and not as a lesson to learn Japanese
You can totally ignore the meaning. Just try to read the hiragana correctly since understanding the meaning of a sentence require more knowledge in Japanese grammar and is an entirely different skill set than what you want to achieve now, which is to read Hiragana & lock them up in you long term memory.
If you focus on both the word & meaning, your brain will get exhausted very quickly and might get discouraged to learn further.
But what if I want to learn Japanese?
Check out lesson index instead, or if you have budget and only want to read one book, get Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar. Once you read it, you’ll be able to use other books to practice reading Japanese and expand your vocabularies effectively with less frustration.
Some hiragana are read differently
Notice some hiragana which being used as particles in a sentence are read differently.
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You don’t have to memorize the usage of particles for now
Just focus on noticing them and read them correctly. To make it easier to you, hiragana used as particle and read differently is written in bold.
Now that you’re ready to practice, pick one of these stories below!
Note that these stories are a work in progress. They are incomplete stories but you can use them to practice reading Hiragana with no problem 😀 Happy learning~
A baby who was found inside a shiny bamboo stalk, grow into a beautiful lady and orders her suitors to prove their love by completing near-impossible tasks
A boy who came out from a giant peach found in a river, decided to help his parents and village by fighting the evil Oni with the help of his animal friends
A poor elderly couple made a doll out of dirt. The doll turn into a boy and the couple raised it with love.
The folk legend behind the name of Kachi Kachi Mountain, one of tourist sightseeing site in Japan.
A story of a crab and a sly monkey who persuade the crab to get her persimmon fruit.
The story of a grateful crane who returns the favor to the man who helps him.
The story of a kind man Taro who helps a turtle in need and got invited to a castle under the sea.
I’m currently practicing using the text on this page, and I’ve notice a few discrepancies:
Part 7: 「これ は かみさま が さずけて くださった に ちがいない。」
>> “Kore wa kamisama ga sazukete kudasatte ni chigainai”
At “kudasatte”, the text in Japanese reads: くださった ending with a た that’s read “ta”.
Part 10: おじいさん は たちまち むらいちばん の おかねもち に なりました。
>> Ojiisan wa tachimara mura ichiban no okanemochi ni narimashita.
At “tachimara”, the text in Japanese reads: たちまち ending with a ちthat’s read “chi”.
I’m not sure what right or wrong, though. I’ll keep going through the entire page and highlight any other discrepancy I find. Thanks for providing this exercise regardless, it’s helping me a lot at learning Japanese.
Nothing wrong except for this silly mistake I made in my comment: “I’m not sure what’s* right or wrong”. I did pretty well after finally memorizing Hiragana. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for reporting the discrepancies!! It has now been fixed XD And don’t worry about the mistake you made on your comment, it’s not silly at all, it’s very natural to make mistakes like that and the important part is that your comment is understandable & very helpful XD Again, thank you! I will try to added more practice sentence with katakana later. So please look forward to it! 😀
isn’t は pronouced as ha and not wa.?
We’ve covered it out here! http://crunchynihongo.com/japanese-particle-wa-or-ha/
Check it out and hope it helps 😉
Its written ha but when we are using it as a particle it will be read as WA
This is ha but as a partical this is wa
When you write watashi’wa’ you did not write watashi’wa’ but instead you write watashi’ha’ but it pronounced as watashi’wa’
because は is a particle. and when used as a particle, it’s read as WA 🙂 Please check out article about particles は
Just found this website and, personally, it looks very promising. I’ll continue using this to improve my reading of the Kana. Of course that goes without saying that I’m read Shigatsu no kimi.
Though a suggestion to those who read this comment and as I found this to be of great use:
1. Grab a manga that INTERESTS you. This step is the most important for if you are reading something you are not interested in, you will not have the self motivation of continuing to read it.
Also make sure it has furigana ( to start out with, then once you begin to obtain more vocabulary and understand better how the grammar works, get manga WITHOUT furigana).
2. Use a J-Dictionary ( I suggest Jisho as they offer an app as well as online dictation. It also informs you the level of Kanji within the JLPT 5 – 1 and if it’s outdated or if it’s used often. It also gives a small example of how it could be used in a sentence. ( This last part is what makes is so unique as Kanji isn’t just stroke order and radicals, but it has ‘meaning’ . And depending on the context, as you’ll soon realize that japanese speak and write are based on context, the kanji meaning will change and you’ll better understand why and how it changed the meaning of kanji.
3. Use some type of Flash Card system. Preferably Anki, or some app that offers the same SRS algorithm in which allows you to create your own decks. Each word that you read, put in the SRS system, from now on i’ll call it ANKI for it’s popularity. Yes, it’s a bit tedious, however doing so will not just give you more Kanji, but vocabulary, grammar, culture understanding and being able to understand the meaning of the words used in the context given within the book/manga. Opening the doors to better understanding writing Japanese. At first, IT IS SLOW, however, patience leads to understanding, understanding leads to perfeccion. ( Personal motto ).
4. Repeat step 3, but switch the book/manga with an anime or japanese movie, show, etc. But it MUST have japanese Subtitles.
5. Take a break. Don’t drown yourself with grammar, vocab, kanji, kana, kun’yomi, on’yomi. Give yourself a break. Just like working out, give your brain a break. Eat some sushi, teriyaki, raw fish, squid. Just make sure that your ‘break’ has SOME type of japanese food ;P
@Crunchynihongo.com, I say to you that I’ll continue using your website for a while, as I want to continue improving my reading skills.
Thankz,
Ahozra.
Thank you for sharing very good tips to learn Japanese, Ahozra! We glad that you like our site 😉 We’ll do our best to make our content better! ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡
It’s really hard to read,which makes it very enjoyable since I’m pretty new at reading Hiragana.I also noticed that the “Onna no ko wa” part at number 11 is missing its “no”.Anyways I hope you guys make more of this.It’s nervewracking but it’s fun! 😁✌️
Thanks for telling us about the “no”! It has been fixed thanks to you ;D We will, so please look forward to them!
this seems great to learn, i think i just learned some… still… there are some parts where the romanji is different from the hiragana… maybe there are some hiragana left in the text… anyway, thanks!
You’re welcome! By the way, if you can describe which one is different, then we might be able to help explain it to you 😀
Hi! Just started studying Hiragana a few days ago! Just wanna ask how’d you know that you already have mastered reading Hiragana?
You know when you have no more trouble or feel comfortable reading any hiragana 😀
This was great practice for me, thank you!
You’re welcome! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
There are couple of types where you typed おんあ の こ instead of おんなのこ! Aside from that thank you very much for the resources. Feels like I’m a 4 year old when I stumble all the time 😡
You’re welcome! It’s alright to stumble, as with each stumble we’ll definitely grow! Happy learning!
Oh, and thanks for reporting! We’ve fixed the issues 😉 *cheers!*
for the beginners who are here to improve their reading skills, don’t mind the meaning for now nor the comments for the mistakes/corrections the advanced students are posting.
keep reading!!
my tip is, when you feel you’re getting faster and faster in pronouncing each characters (words), only then you go with the vocab (but don’t push to learn kanji too early.) take it slow.
That’s a great tips! Taking it slow and move on your own pace is the best way to avoid frustration in self-learning!
Can someone help me ? I’m little bit confused 🙁 why? is the other つ is smaller than the other ?like this part 1 no. 2 ” いっ” plss help 🙁
It has a different usage when used in the smaller version 😀 The smaller version means that the next kana is doubled (hold it a bit more when pronouncing it).
いっぱい = ippai
いつか = itsuka
You could get more explanation here http://crunchynihongo.com/easy-hiragana-guide-1/
Hope it helps!
This website is magic! Thank God I stumbled upon it. Thank you very much for creating this website, thank you!!
Thank you! You’re welcome and we’re so glad we could help!
I was searching for a website like this and I found this website. I can’t explain how much I have come to love this website. Thank you for your efforts.
We’re glad you like it 😀 Thank you~
Been using these stories to practice reading my hiragana, and I’m surprised at how much fun I’m having! The more I read, the faster I get…and the progress keeps me motivated.
I hope you’ll add more parts to the stories soon, because this is really great practice for beginners.
Thank you!!
We’re glad to hear it from you. Please keep supporting us 😀
I enjoy, cаuse I found exactⅼy what I was having a look
for. You’ve endｅd my f᧐ur day long hunt! GoԀ Вless you man. Have a great day.
Βye
Have a great day too! 😀 We glad you found what you like 😀
hellow, I wanted to ask about っ which I know is pronounced “Tsu”, can you explain why in romaji it’s written : いって itte OR in this case it does pronounce tsu in the begining of the sentence but not in the middle つくって くらして tsukutte.
Thank you so much 🙂
Hey there! It’s about the size. The little one is not a TSU. But marking a double consonant. so いって is itte not itsute. But よつば is yotsuba. Hope it helps 😀
Amazing website . This is very helpful to read hiragana ……..keep it up
Thanks for creating this page. It’s helping me a lot.
You’re welcome! We’re glad this helps ~
This is a really helpful website! I’m studying Japanese hiragana and I am working on kana characters from a Practice Makes Perfect workbook on Japanese. I’m glad I could test some of my knowledge while reading these stories!
ありがとう！ We’re glad this helps you 😀
I read it almost every day so I can speak Japanese fluently
This has helped me so much to read hiragana much faster already and I just started learning the alphabet a week ago! Thank you so, so much for providing this reading practice.
hey im new can someone help me get started my friend got me to do this app and if u have Duolingo please follow me my name is DamonloveTVD thx
thank you for your share your knowledge to us glad to see your content
You’re welcome! Hope it helps!
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Mistake in part 5(point 30) of kaguya hime
ぱ is written is ba instead of pa
Yes! should be pokan (blankly). Thank you for noticing!
Hello,
Many thanks for this WebSite, it helps me a lot. Also you provide Kaguya Ime story I was looking for. I am really happy now I have to work to be able to at least read Hiraganas…
I’d give this website a 5 star! This helps me a lot in reading Hiragana, although i cannot understand the meaning of each words, but surely it will follow. I just started learning the Hiragana chart last week, and I can say that I’m getting the hang of it, all thanks to this website and the other resources I’m using to practice. This website is highly recommended for those who want to learn how to read kana as soon as possible! and I hope you guys will develop a mobile application that allows the user to download the articles and especially the stories, so we can read offline. Thank you!
PS: I’ve spotted some error in number 47 and 48 of “Princess Kaguya” … in page 47, the hiragana is written only up until “Haratte” the “Kuremasen” is missing but the romaji translation has kuremasen in it. And it seems like the “kuremasen” was mistakenly put to the next page, which is page 48. That’s the only thing I spotted so far and I hope my comment is understandable hehehe
Thanks for noticing it! Fixed it 😉
Thanks a lot to whosoever has created this page. It really helped me practise Hiragana reading.
Today I finished reading all the seven stories, along with the translations. Initially I used to read 3-4 lines in 5 minutes. Now I can read 10 lines in 1 minute. The stories are nice too.
Once again, thanks a lot for creating such a free material. It really helped.
Glad you like them!