There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language. (a), pronounced “ahh”, (i), pronounced like “e” in “eat”, (u), pronounced like “oo” in “soon”, (e), pronounced like “e” in “elk”, and (o), pronounced “oh”. All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only “consonant” that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese “r”. It is slightly “rolled” as if it were a combination of a “d”, “r”, and “l”.

あ a い i う u え e お o か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko が ga ぎ gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go さ sa し shi す su せ se そ so ざ za じ ji ず zu ぜ ze ぞ zo た ta ち chi つ tsu て te と to だ da ぢ ji づ zu で de ど do な na に ni ぬ nu ね ne の no は ha ひ hi ふ fu へ he ほ ho ば ba び bi ぶ bu べ be ぼ bo ぱ pa ぴ pi ぷ pu ぺ pe ぽ po ま ma み mi む mu め me も mo や ya ゆ yu よ yo ら ra り ri る ru れ re ろ ro わ wa を wo ん n/m

Combinations きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo

Exceptions:
1. は (ha) is pronounced “wa” when it immediately follows the topic of the sentence. It is usually only pronounced “ha” when it is part of a word.
2. へ (he) is pronounced “e” when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.

Keep in mind that the Japanese language has different levels of politeness that change based on who you are talking to. I will refer to these as “ultra-formal”, “formal” (or “polite form”), “normal” (or “plain form”), “informal”, and “rude” (we won’t be covering too much of the rude form, however).

Japanese grammar uses what we will refer to as particles to mark the various parts of the sentence. The main particles are:

The particles “wa” (は) and “ga” (が): The particle “wa” marks the topic of the sentence and the particle “ga” marks the subject of the sentence. In the example, “I know where you live” (watashi wa anata ga doko ni sunde iru ka shitte iru), “I” would be the topic while “you” would be the subject.

Not all sentences have both a topic and subject and, in many cases, the topic is implied in Japanese (for example, the “I” (watashi wa) would be left out of this sentence because it is implied that since I am talking I am the one that knows where you live). Many Japanese books and teachers teach that “wa” and “ga” are the same thing and it doesn’t matter which you use when. This is not the case but I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping them straight at first.

The particle “wo” (を): The particle “wo” (or “o”) marks the direct object of the sentence. In the example, “I’m going to take her home” (watashi wa kanojo wo ie ni okuru), “her” would be the direct object.

The particle “ni” (に): The particle “ni” can be used to mark the direction, time, or the indirect object of a sentence.

An example of a direction marker can be seen in the previous example “I’m going to take her home” (watashi wa kanojo wo ie ni okuru). In this case, the “ni” acts like a “to” – “I’m going to take her ‘to’ home”. The particle “e” (へ) can be used in this way as well but usually implies more of a general direction as opposed to a specific places.

The particle “ni” is also used to mark time in a sentence. For example, “I’m leaving at 3 o’clock” (watashi wa sanji ni hanareru).

The final use for the particle “ni” is that of indirect object marker. In the example, “I was taken home by him” (watashi wa kare ni ie made okurareta), “him” is the indirect object.

Numbers after 10 are a piece of cake once you know 1 through 10. 11 is simply ten with a one after it, 十一 (じゅういち, juuichi), 12 – juuni, 13 – juusan, 14 – juuyon, etc. 20 is simply 二十 (にじゅう, nijuu), 21 – nijuuichi, and so forth.

Put these numbers in front of the character for time 時 and you’ve got the time of the day.

Now just put the character for moon 月 after a number and you’ve got a month.

Days of the week don’t follow such an easy pattern but here they are anyway along with some other time-related words.