How to Read and Write あいうえお: The Five Hiragana Vowels

You want to start reading hiragana, but a full chart of 46 basic characters feels like too much at once.

Start with five. These are the vowel kana, and every other row of the chart is built on them:

The short answer

These are the five basic vowel kana. They are useful on their own, but they also give you the backbone of the hiragana chart.

For now, your goal is simple: see あいうえお and read a-i-u-e-o without romaji. Then be able to write each sound as the correct hiragana.

あ (a)

The first hiragana is あ, read a:

You will see it at the start of everyday words such as these:

When you see あ, read a, whether it begins あさ, あめ, or あした.

Read the kana on its own, then inside two words. Then cover the romaji and read them again:

Your first target is recognition. You should not need to mentally search a hiragana chart every time you see あ.

い (i)

The second vowel kana is い, read i:

You can see it at the start of these words:

Read these, starting with the single kana and then いえ, いぬ, and いす:

The important beginner habit is to read the kana directly, い → i, rather than thinking: “Which character is this? Oh, that is the Japanese symbol for the English letter i.”

Hiragana represents Japanese sounds, not English alphabet letters.

う (u)

The third vowel kana is う, read u:

You can see it at the start of these words:

Read the kana on its own, then inside both words:

In both うえ and うしろ, the first kana is う, so the first sound is u.

Be careful not to confuse う with つ (tsu) when you meet more hiragana later. う has a short, separate stroke on top; つ is a single curved stroke. For now, learn the shape of う as its own character.

え (e)

The fourth vowel kana is え, read e:

You can see it in these words. The first is just え on its own:

Read the kana, then the word for station:

On its own, え is already a complete word. And if you are travelling in Japan, えき (eki) is an especially useful word to recognize.

Break えき into its two kana:

Even if you do not know every hiragana yet, recognizing え gives you one piece of the word immediately.

お (o)

The fifth vowel kana is お, read o:

You can see it at the start of these words:

Read these aloud, from the single kana up to おちゃ, おかね, and おなまえ:

One of these words contains something new. In おちゃ (ocha), the small ゃ after ち is not a separate syllable; it joins ち to make cha. You do not need it yet. When you are ready, How to Read Combination Hiragana: Small ゃゅょ explains how it works.

Notice that おなまえ (onamae) contains two of today's vowel kana: お at the beginning and え at the end.

As you learn more hiragana, these five characters will keep appearing inside longer words.

How the five vowels sound

Each of these kana stands for one of the five basic Japanese vowel sounds. Keep each one short and steady when you read aloud:

• あ (a): the mouth is wide open, roughly like the a in “father”.
• い (i): the mouth is only slightly open, close to a short “ee”.
• う (u): keep the lips relaxed, not rounded or pushed forward. English speakers often round this one too much.
• え (e): halfway between あ and い, roughly like the e in “pet”.
• お (o): halfway between あ and う, like a short “oh” held steady.

In some words, う becomes very light. You will hear this at the end of です (desu), which often sounds like “des”. You do not need that yet; How to Pronounce Desu and Masu in Japanese explains it when you get there.

Read the row in any order

Now put all five together, one kana at a time, then read them from left to right as a row:

Do it again. Then reverse the order:

Can you still identify each character? If you only recognize them when they appear in the memorized order あいうえお, you have memorized the sequence but not yet fully learned the characters.

Shuffle them, and read each kana where it falls. Then shuffle them again:

Recognition should work in any order.

Read words made only of vowels

Now use the characters inside short words. Each word below is followed by its two vowel kana.

あお

Read あお as one word: ao.

いえ

Read いえ as one word: ie.

うえ

Read うえ as one word: ue.

These are useful because you can already read the entire word using only today's five kana.

Why these five matter beyond five characters

The hiragana chart is organized around these five vowel sounds. Later, you will learn rows such as:

and the さ row, where one kana, し, is read shi:

Notice the pattern: a　i　u　e　o, then ka　ki　ku　ke　ko, then sa　shi　su　se　so.

The consonant changes from row to row, and a few sounds shift slightly (し is shi, not “si”), but the vowel order keeps returning.

So learning あ　い　う　え　お is not just learning the first five kana. It gives you the order that helps organize the rest of basic hiragana.

Common mistakes

Reading いえ as one English-looking chunk

Romaji can hide how simple a Japanese word is. Take いえ. Its romaji is ie, and an English speaker might look at “ie” and wonder how those letters combine.

But the hiragana tells you exactly what is there: い (i), then え (e). So read:

The same principle applies to あお (ao). Read the two kana:

Learning to read from kana helps you stop guessing pronunciation from English spelling habits.

Confusing お (o) and あ (a)

When you first learn hiragana, both characters can feel visually complicated. Compare them directly:

Do not memorize them only as vague shapes. One concrete difference: お has a small, separate stroke at the top right, and あ does not. Practise the contrast:

Now start with お instead:

Then put both into a word you already know:

If you reverse them, you no longer have the same spelling. Character order matters.

Confusing い (i) and り (ri)

You may later notice that い (i) and り (ri) can look somewhat similar to a beginner.

For now, make い familiar enough that you recognize it quickly. Look for it in いえ (ie, house), いぬ (inu, dog), and いす (isu, chair).

When you eventually learn り, compare the two deliberately rather than relying on a vague memory of their shapes. In い, the right-hand stroke is the shorter one; in り, the right-hand stroke is much longer and sweeps down.

Practise the vowel kana

Write from memory, not by copying

Copying あ　あ　あ　あ　あ can help you become familiar with the shape. But copying alone does not tell you whether you can produce あ when you need it.

After looking at あ (a), hide it. Then try to write: a → ?

Your answer should be あ. Do the same for all five:

• a → あ
• i → い
• u → う
• e → え
• o → お

If you cannot produce one from memory, look at it again and retry.

The useful skill is not “I can copy this character.” It is “I know which character represents this sound.”

Recognition practice

Read each character before checking the answers: え, あ, う, お and い. Then read this sequence: お　う　あ　え　い.

Recognition answers

え (e), あ (a), う (u), お (o), い (i). The sequence reads o　u　a　e　i.

If that was harder than reading あいうえお, keep practising in shuffled order.

Read the word

1. Which word is ao, “blue”? A. あお　B. おあ　C. いえ
2. Which word is ie, “house / home”? A. うえ　B. いえ　C. あお
3. Which word is ue, “above / on top”? A. うえ　B. いえ　C. えう

Read the word: answers

1. A. あお
2. B. いえ
3. A. うえ

Now read all three without romaji: あお, いえ, うえ. They read ao, ie and ue.

Production practice

Write the correct hiragana without looking back: a, i, u, e, o; then a-i-u-e-o, i-e, u-e and a-o.

Production answers

あ, い, う, え, お; then あいうえお, いえ, うえ and あお.

You have moved from writing isolated kana to spelling complete Japanese words.

A better test than writing the row repeatedly

Take five small pieces of paper. On one side, write a, i, u, e, o. On the other side, write あ, い, う, え, お.

Shuffle them. When you see u, produce う. When you see え, say e.

Practise in both directions: sound → kana, and kana → sound.

Then mix in the three words you can already read entirely:

The goal is not to recite a chart. It is to recognize and produce the characters wherever they appear.

Keep this in mind

You now have five characters to recognize:

And three words you can read using only those characters:

Before adding another row, make sure you can see う and immediately read u, hear or think e and write え, and see あお and read the whole word without needing romaji.

Once you can do that, the next hiragana row, か き く け こ (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko), will feel familiar: it is the same a-i-u-e-o pattern with a k sound in front. Practise it on the kana chart, and when you are ready, the dakuten lesson shows how two small marks turn that same row into が ぎ ぐ げ ご (ga, gi, gu, ge, go).

Continue learning

For the bigger picture of how hiragana works alongside katakana and kanji, read Japanese Alphabets Explained: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

When the same vowel sound is held for longer, as in おばあさん (obaasan), the meaning can change. Japanese Long Vowels: Why おばさん and おばあさん Sound Different shows how to read and say it.

Once the basic rows feel comfortable, the small circle mark is covered in Handakuten in Japanese: How ゜Changes は into ぱ.

Review words from this lesson, such as あさ, いえ, and えき, in the vocabulary library.