Lesson 1 of 12
Kana Sprint 1 — the five vowels
about 5 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read あ, い, う, え and お on sight.
- Read a short word made only of vowels.
Closing time at Komorebi. Ren has lined five paper cards along the counter and is squinting at them like a man reading a map upside down.
Ren
Five sounds. That is all. Aki says if I get these five, the rest of the alphabet is just these five wearing hats.
Aki
He has been saying that for a year. Your turn — read them in order, and do not rush the last one.
Words this lesson teaches
- いえ
- house — i-e
- うえ
- above, on top — u-e
- あお
- blue — a-o
- あい
- love — a-i
What it explains
Five sounds, and they never change
Japanese has five vowel sounds and they stay the same wherever they appear — unlike English, where the a in father, cake and about are three different sounds. Once you know あ, it is あ every time. Keep them short: いえ is two beats, ee-eh, not the drawn-out ee-yay an English reader reaches for. Length matters in Japanese and a long vowel is written differently, which is Sprint 9.
Two shapes worth separating now
う and お are the pair that gets confused, because both are a small stroke above a curve. お has a cross-stroke and a tick on the right; う has neither. If you learn them as different now it stays learned. あ and お also look related and are not: あ has a loop crossing itself in the middle.