Japanese for absolute beginners: where to start

Japanese has a reputation for being impossible. Three writing systems, thousands of characters, a grammar that puts the verb at the end. It sounds like a lot, and at the advanced level it is. But the beginning is surprisingly gentle, if you take things in the right order.

Most people who give up do so because they start in the wrong place: memorising kanji on day one, relying on romaji (Japanese written in Latin letters) for months, or collecting apps without a plan. This guide gives you the plan.

How Japanese works, in 60 seconds

Before you learn anything, it helps to see the whole picture. A normal Japanese sentence mixes three scripts. Tap the parts of the sentence below to see which is which.

• Hiragana (ひらがな) is the core alphabet. Every sound in Japanese can be written with it. It is used for grammar, particles and many native words.
• Katakana (カタカナ) represents the same sounds with different shapes. It is mostly used for foreign loanwords like コーヒー (kōhī, coffee).
• Kanji (漢字) are characters borrowed from Chinese that carry meaning. Japan’s official list of common-use kanji has 2,136 characters, but you only need a few to begin.

The good news: hiragana alone lets you write every word in the language. Children’s books are written almost entirely in it. That’s why it is always step one.

Step 1: Learn hiragana (week 1–2)

Hiragana has 46 basic characters. Each one stands for a syllable, like ka, shi or mo, and they are arranged in a neat grid of vowels and consonants. Once you know the five vowels, the rest follows a clear pattern.

Try it now. This is the first lesson: five characters, two minutes.

A good pace is one row of the chart per day. That gets you through the whole thing in about two weeks, with time left over for review. Our full hiragana chart with audio has mnemonics and a quiz for each row.

Step 2: Get the sounds right

Japanese pronunciation is one of the easiest parts of the language for English speakers. There are only five vowels (a, i, u, e, o), and each is always pronounced the same way. There are no silent letters and very few sounds that don’t exist in English.

A few things are worth practising from the start:

• Long vowels. おばさん (obasan, aunt) and おばあさん (obāsan, grandmother) differ only in vowel length.
• Double consonants. The small っ creates a short pause: きて (kite, come) vs. きって (kitte, stamp).
• The Japanese r. It is a quick tap of the tongue, somewhere between English r, l and d.

Our Japanese pronunciation guide covers all of these with audio examples.

Step 3: Your first words and phrases (month 1)

As soon as you can read a few rows of hiragana, start learning real words with them. Focus on things you would actually say. Here are five you’ll use constantly. Tap to listen:

• ▶︎
  こんにちはkonnichiwa
  Hello / Good afternoon
• ▶︎
  ありがとうarigatō
  Thank youAdd ございます (gozaimasu) to be more polite.
• ▶︎
  すみませんsumimasen
  Excuse me / Sorry
• ▶︎
  はいhai
  Yes
• ▶︎
  いいえiie
  No

Find fifty more in our list of basic Japanese phrases, grouped by situation and with audio for each.

For vocabulary, go by frequency: numbers, days of the week, family, food, common verbs like to eat, to go and to see. A spaced-repetition system that shows each word just before you would forget it is by far the most efficient way to remember them.

Step 4: Katakana

Katakana uses the same 46 sounds as hiragana, just with different, more angular shapes. Because you already know the sounds, it usually goes faster the second time around. Learn it within your first month or two, because it appears everywhere: menus, shop signs, brand names and loanwords like テレビ (terebi, TV) or パン (pan, bread).

Our katakana chart shows each character next to its hiragana twin, so you can learn them in pairs.

Step 5: Simple sentences

Japanese grammar is different from English, but it is very regular. Three things to know early:

1. The verb comes last. “I coffee drink” instead of “I drink coffee”.
2. Particles mark the role of each word. Small words like は, が and を follow a word and tell you whether it’s the topic, the subject or the object.
3. Politeness is built into verbs. Beginners usually learn the polite です / ます forms first, which work in almost every situation.

Here is a complete sentence, taken apart. Tap each word. The two most confusing particles get their own guide: は vs. が.

Step 6: Your first kanji

Kanji is the long game of Japanese, and it’s where the language becomes truly fascinating. But you don’t need to rush it. Once you can read hiragana and katakana comfortably, start with simple, picture-like kanji such as 日 (sun, day), 山 (mountain) and 人 (person).

A few new kanji per day, always learned together with real words that use them, adds up quickly. Start with our guide to your first 10 kanji.

Your first three months, planned

Put together, a realistic plan for a complete beginner studying 15 to 30 minutes a day looks like this:

Everyone moves at a different speed, and that’s fine. What matters is that you practise a little every day. If you want an honest look at longer timelines, read how long it takes to learn Japanese.

Common beginner mistakes

• Staying on romaji too long. It feels comfortable, but it delays real reading.
• Starting with kanji. Kanji makes far more sense once you know the sounds and some words.
• Learning words without context. A word inside a short sentence sticks much better than a word on its own.
• Cramming. Five days of ten minutes beats one hour on Sunday.
• Waiting to speak. Say words out loud from day one, even alone. Your mouth needs practice too.

Frequently asked questions