Japanese Kana and Basics: 200 Cards Starting from Zero
Nearly every beginner stalls on the same four pairs of kana, so those get their own cards.
200枚のカード
収録カードを見る（30枚）
全200枚から30枚を抜粋して表示しています。
| 表 | 裏 |
|---|---|
| あ | Reading: a as in father Notes: The first vowel. Three strokes, ending with a loop on the right. Example: あい — love |
| か | Reading: ka Notes: Three strokes. Adding a voicing mark gives が, read ga. Example: かお — face |
| さ | Reading: sa Notes: Three strokes. It mirrors ち, which curves the other way. Example: さかな — fish |
| た | Reading: ta Notes: Four strokes, resembling a plus sign beside a small ka. Example: たかい — expensive |
| な | Reading: na Notes: Four strokes ending with a small loop. Example: なつ — summer |
| は | Reading: ha Notes: Three strokes. Read wa when used as the topic particle. Example: はな — flower |
| ま | Reading: ma Notes: Three strokes, similar to は but with a loop at the bottom. Example: まち — town |
| や | Reading: ya Notes: Three strokes. A small ゃ combines with the i-column kana. Example: やま — mountain |
| ら | Reading: ra Notes: Two strokes. The r sound is a light tap, between r and l. Example: そら — sky |
| わ | Reading: wa Notes: Two strokes. Compare with ね and れ, which differ at the end. Example: わたし — I |
| ぬ and め | Reading: nu and me Notes: Both start the same way, but only ぬ ends in a loop. Example: いぬ — dog / め — eye |
| ニ | Reading: ni Notes: Two horizontal strokes, the lower one longer. Example: ニュース — news |
| モ | Reading: mo Notes: Three strokes, resembling hiragana も without the loop. Example: モデル — model |
| シ and ツ | Reading: shi and tsu Notes: The dots sit on the left in シ and on top in ツ, and the stroke directions differ. Example: シャツ — shirt / ツアー — tour |
| が | Reading: ga Notes: か with a voicing mark. The whole k-row voices to g. Example: がっこう — school |
| きゃ | Reading: kya Notes: き with a small ゃ. The two kana make one syllable. Example: きゃく — guest |
| the small tsu | Reading: sokuon Notes: A small っ that doubles the following consonant and adds a pause. Example: きって — postage stamp |
| long vowel with う | Reading: ou or oo Notes: In hiragana, o and u sounds are lengthened by adding う. Example: こうえん — park |
| the topic particle は | Reading: wa Notes: Written は but read wa when it marks the topic. Example: わたしはがくせいです — I am a student |
| the vowel u between voiceless sounds | Reading: devoicing Notes: The u in some syllables is barely voiced between voiceless consonants. Example: です — is, where the final u is very light |
| writing loanwords | Reading: gairaigo Notes: Foreign words are written in katakana and adapted to Japanese sounds. Example: コンピューター — computer |
| は as a particle | Reading: wa Notes: Marks the topic of the sentence, the thing being talked about. Example: わたしはにほんじんです — I am Japanese |
| です | Reading: desu Notes: The polite copula, placed at the end of a sentence. Example: がくせいです — I am a student |
| これ, それ and あれ | Reading: kore, sore and are Notes: This near me, that near you, and that over there. Example: これはペンです — This is a pen |
| おはようございます | Reading: ohayou gozaimasu Notes: The polite morning greeting. The short form おはよう is casual. Example: おはようございます — Good morning |
| ありがとうございます | Reading: arigatou gozaimasu Notes: The polite way to say thank you. ありがとう alone is casual. Example: ありがとうございます — Thank you |
| いち, に, さん | Reading: ichi, ni, san Notes: One, two and three. These are the readings used for counting. Example: いち, に, さん — one, two, three |
| げつようび | Reading: getsuyoubi Notes: Monday. All the day names end in ようび. Example: げつようびにいきます — I go on Monday |
| ひと | Reading: hito Notes: Person. It is a very common everyday noun. Example: あのひとはだれですか — Who is that person? |
| たべる | Reading: taberu Notes: To eat. The polite form is たべます. Example: パンをたべます — I eat bread |
このデッキについて
Almost everyone learning kana confuses the same handful of shapes. Two characters differ only by a final loop. Two more are near mirror images. Two katakana differ only in where the dots sit and in the direction the strokes are written. These pairs are not hard, but nobody points them out, so learners discover them by getting them wrong repeatedly. This deck is 200 cards. Every hiragana and katakana appears, with the back cut into three fixed lines: "Reading" gives the romanised reading, "Notes" gives the stroke family or the shape it resembles, and "Example" gives a short word with its English gloss. The confusable pairs also get cards of their own. The remaining sections cover voiced and contracted sounds, long vowels and the small tsu, the core particles, and the greetings, numbers and phrases used from the first lesson. Kanji is avoided except for a handful of numbers and very common words, and glossed wherever it appears. That keeps the deck usable from the first day, before any kanji study begins. Once it is on a spaced-repetition schedule, the kana you read instantly stop coming back and the four or five you keep hesitating over return until they stop being a pause.
よくある質問
- What is in each section of the deck?
- Hiragana has 50 cards, katakana 50, sounds and spelling 35, particles and sentence basics 35, and first words and phrases 30, for 200 in total. Every card carries section and subtopic tags, so you can drill only hiragana, only the confusable shapes, or only the particles.
- Do I need to know any Japanese to start?
- None at all. The deck begins with the five vowels and builds from there. By the end you can read both syllabaries, handle the sound changes that written kana hide, use the core particles, and produce the phrases a first lesson covers.
- Does it teach kanji?
- No, and that is deliberate. Kanji study is a separate and much longer project, and starting it before kana are automatic slows both down. A few numbers and very common words appear in kanji with a gloss, because you will meet them immediately, but nothing more.
- Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?
- Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and spends no AI credits, so the free plan imports all 200 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.
- Will importing it twice create duplicates?
- No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?
- Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.
No official exam questions are reproduced. Every card was written for this deck.Editorial reference date 2026-08-31.