Japanese hiragana is one of the two phonetic syllabaries used in everyday writing. The system begins with five vowels that appear in the order あ (a, as in "father"), い (i, as in "meet"), う (u, with unrounded lips), え (e, as in "bed"), and お (o, as in "go"). These five characters form the foundation from which nearly all other hiragana sounds are built through combinations, and they are the very first characters a learner encounters.
After the vowels come consonants paired with each vowel. The k-row begins with か (ka), continues through き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), and ends with こ (ko). Each of these can be modified by adding a small dakuten mark (゛) in the upper right corner, which voices the consonant: か becomes が (ga), き becomes ぎ (gi), く becomes ぐ (gu), け becomes げ (ge), and こ becomes ご (go). This voicing rule applies consistently to most consonant rows in hiragana.
The s-row follows a similar pattern with さ (sa), す (su), せ (se), and そ (so), but し deserves special attention. Unlike the regular pairing suggested by the vowel order, し is read as "shi" rather than "si". This is one of the irregular readings in Japanese hiragana. Applying the dakuten transforms the s-row into the z-row: ざ (za), じ (ji, not "zi"), ず (zu), ぜ (ze), and ぞ (zo). Mastering these two rows gives learners a solid base for reading hiragana.