A grid, not a list
The kana are conventionally arranged as a grid. The five vowels head the columns, and each row is a consonant combined with each of those vowels in turn.
That structure is the point. Learning the kana as a hundred separate shapes is much harder than learning five vowels and then a series of consonant rows, and the grid is also what everything else in the language uses for ordering.
| Row | a | i | u | e | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vowels | あ | い | う | え | お |
| k | か | き | く | け | こ |
| s | さ | し | す | せ | そ |
| t | た | ち | つ | て | と |
| n | な | に | ぬ | ね | の |
| h | は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ |
| m | ま | み | む | め | も |
Notice the irregular entries in the s and t rows. Those are the sound changes that make the chart phonetic rather than mechanical.
The irregular entries
A few cells do not follow the pattern mechanically, because the sound shifted historically. The s row has shi where si would be expected, the t row has chi and tsu, and the h row has fu.
These are not exceptions to be memorised separately. They are the reason the chart reflects real pronunciation, and knowing where they sit prevents the common error of trying to produce a sound that does not exist.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| し | shi | Not si |
| ち | chi | Not ti |
| つ | tsu | Not tu |
| ふ | fu | Made with both lips |
| を | o | A particle only |
| ん | n | A beat of its own, outside the grid |
The last entry sits outside the grid entirely, because it is a consonant that forms its own beat rather than combining with a vowel.
Why dictionaries need it
Japanese dictionaries, indexes, class registers, name lists and many forms are ordered by this sequence. Without it you cannot look anything up alphabetically, which is a practical limitation that arrives sooner than most learners expect.
The order runs down the rows: the vowels first, then the k row, the s row and so on. Within a row it runs across the columns.
- Paper dictionaries are ordered this way throughout.
- Indexes at the back of textbooks use it.
- Class and name lists are ordered by it.
- Menus and directories sometimes use it.
- Electronic dictionaries sort by it even when you type in romaji.
Conjugation moves across the grid
This is the payoff that surprises learners. A Japanese verb keeps a fixed stem and changes its final kana, and that final kana moves through the columns of a single row.
Seeing conjugation as movement across a row turns a set of memorised endings into a pattern, and it explains why the forms look related in the way they do.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| かく | kaku | To write, dictionary form |
| かかない | kakanai | Negative: the a column |
| かきます | kakimasu | Polite: the i column |
| かく | kaku | Plain: the u column |
| かけば | kakeba | Conditional: the e column |
| かこう | kakō | Volitional: the o column |
Beyond the basic grid
The chart extends in two ways: the voiced rows produced by adding marks, and the combinations formed with a small ya, yu or yo. Both slot into the same structure.
Learning the plain grid first and then adding these keeps the whole system to three short stages rather than one long one.
- The plain grid: five vowels and the consonant rows.
- The voiced rows: the k, s, t and h rows with two strokes, and the h row with a circle.
- The combinations: the i-column kana with a small ya, yu or yo.
- The extended katakana combinations, for foreign sounds.
- Each stage builds on the last rather than adding unrelated material.
Learning in grid order
Because the grid is the structure the language actually uses, learning the kana in this order costs nothing extra and pays back repeatedly: in dictionary lookups, in conjugation and in seeing the script as a system.
Learn the vowels first, then one row at a time, saying each row aloud in order. Five characters at a time is a manageable unit and the row structure makes them mutually reinforcing.
For recognition speed, the kana games on Unihongo's alphabet page are the complement: the grid gives you the structure and rapid drilling gives you the speed to read without decoding.
If you learned kana in a random order from an app, spend an hour re-learning them in grid order. Conjugation will make considerably more sense afterwards.