Do I only have to learn the 46 Hiragana characters?

Question

Then move on to Katakana because I saw another Hiragana chart that shows characters that change the pronounciation

Answer 1

You will need to learn three alphabets.

Hiragana is used to write Japanese words.

Katakana is used to write foreign words, or sounds.

Kanji are used to write Japanese words.

Hiragana is phonetic.

Katakana is phonetic.

Kanji represent ideas, and can be pronounced many ways.

All Japanse people know all three, and most sentences will probably use all three (at the least, just a combination of kanji and hiragana).

Example: 私のホバークラフトは鰻でいっぱいです。

私 (watashi, kanji) = I

の (no, hiragana) = connecting particle ("watashi no" means "my")

ホバークラフト(ha baa ku ra fu to, katakana) = hovercraft

は (wa, hiragana) = subject particle

é°» (unagi, kanji) = eel

で (de, hiragana) = in

いっぱい (i ppa i, hiragana) = full

です (de su, hiragana) = is

The sentence "My hovercraft is full of eels," as you can see, uses all three writing systems. You have to know all three to read newspapers, websites, TV broadcasts, etc.

Answer 2

you need to learn other hiragana reading as well.

sha, shu, s****.>
pa, pi, pu, pe, po

ba, bi, bu, be, bo....etc.

then move on to katakana.

though hiragana/katakana have 47 letters.

http://www.saiga-jp.com/pronunciation_vo...

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

Here is good hiragana chart for english speakers. You do need to learn all 3 writing systems (as Kelly says above) to live in Japan. But, no person an master all kanji, i was born in Kyoto (now live in Tokyo) & i still don't know all kanji. There was to many kanji for people to learn, so if you see kanji you don't know, its ok.& some kanji are not used any more. (you will find out more about kanji as you study.)

I am from Japan, so if any english mistakes, I'm sorry. I am still learning.

Kelly explained Japanese writing very well, you should give her best answer.

Answer 4

To be able to read Japanese you need to learn the hiragana characters, used to write the native Japanese words, the katakana characters, which are a second set, with the same pronounciations as hiragana, but used to spell foreign words, and then you have to learn the many kanji that are also used.

Kanji really is the most difficult to learn, even Japanese don't know them all and spend years to learn them.