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 — how is it read? | a as in father The first vowel. Three strokes, ending with a loop on the right. |
| か — how is it read? | ka Three strokes. Adding a voicing mark gives が, read ga. |
| さ — how is it read? | sa Three strokes. It mirrors ち, which curves the other way. |
| た — how is it read? | ta Four strokes, resembling a plus sign beside a small ka. |
| な — how is it read? | na Four strokes ending with a small loop. |
| は — how is it read? | ha Three strokes. Read wa when used as the topic particle. |
| ま — how is it read? | ma Three strokes, similar to は but with a loop at the bottom. |
| や — how is it read? | ya Three strokes. A small ゃ combines with the i-column kana. |
| ら — how is it read? | ra Two strokes. The r sound is a light tap, between r and l. |
| わ — how is it read? | wa Two strokes. Compare with ね and れ, which differ at the end. |
| ぬ and め — how is it read? | nu and me Both start the same way, but only ぬ ends in a loop. |
| ニ — how is it read? | ni Two horizontal strokes, the lower one longer. |
| モ — how is it read? | mo Three strokes, resembling hiragana も without the loop. |
| シ and ツ — how is it read? | shi and tsu The dots sit on the left in シ and on top in ツ, and the stroke directions differ. |
| が — how is it read? | ga か with a voicing mark. The whole k-row voices to g. |
| きゃ — how is it read? | kya き with a small ゃ. The two kana make one syllable. |
| the small tsu — how is it read? | sokuon A small っ that doubles the following consonant and adds a pause. |
| long vowel with う — how is it read? | ou or oo In hiragana, o and u sounds are lengthened by adding う. |
| the topic particle は — how is it read? | wa Written は but read wa when it marks the topic. |
| the vowel u between voiceless sounds — how is it read? | devoicing The u in some syllables is barely voiced between voiceless consonants. |
| writing loanwords — how is it read? | gairaigo Foreign words are written in katakana and adapted to Japanese sounds. |
| は as a particle — how is it read? | wa Marks the topic of the sentence, the thing being talked about. |
| です — how is it read? | desu The polite copula, placed at the end of a sentence. |
| これ, それ and あれ — how is it read? | kore, sore and are This near me, that near you, and that over there. |
| おはようございます — how is it read? | ohayou gozaimasu The polite morning greeting. The short form おはよう is casual. |
| ありがとうございます — how is it read? | arigatou gozaimasu The polite way to say thank you. ありがとう alone is casual. |
| いち, に, さん — how is it read? | ichi, ni, san One, two and three. These are the readings used for counting. |
| げつようび — how is it read? | getsuyoubi Monday. All the day names end in ようび. |
| ひと — how is it read? | hito Person. It is a very common everyday noun. |
| たべる — how is it read? | taberu To eat. The polite form is たべます. |
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 giving the romanised reading and, where it applies, a line on the stroke family or the shape it resembles. 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 does not use your AI allowance, 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.