Hiragana: Dakuten and Combinations

Now that you know all 46 basic hiragana, this lesson teaches you how to expand the system with dakuten (゛), handakuten (゜), combination characters, long vowels, and the small っ (tsu). These additions roughly double the number of sounds available.

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Dakuten (゛) — Voiced Consonants

The dakuten (濁点) is a pair of small diagonal strokes (゛) added to the top-right of certain characters to "voice" the consonant:

G Row (が行) — from K Row

Character	Romaji	Base	Example Word
が	ga	か → が	がっこう (gakkou) — school
ぎ	gi	き → ぎ	おにぎり (onigiri) — rice ball
ぐ	gu	く → ぐ	ぐうぜん (guuzen) — coincidence
げ	ge	け → げ	げんき (genki) — energetic / well
ご	go	こ → ご	ごはん (gohan) — rice / meal

Z Row (ざ行) — from S Row

Character	Romaji	Base	Example Word
ざ	za	さ → ざ	ざっし (zasshi) — magazine
じ	ji	し → じ	じかん (jikan) — time
ず	zu	す → ず	かず (kazu) — number
ぜ	ze	せ → ぜ	ぜんぶ (zenbu) — all / everything
ぞ	zo	そ → ぞ	かぞく (kazoku) — family

D Row (だ行) — from T Row

Character	Romaji	Base	Example Word
だ	da	た → だ	だれ (dare) — who
ぢ	ji	ち → ぢ	はなぢ (hanaji) — nosebleed
づ	zu	つ → づ	つづく (tsuzuku) — to continue
で	de	て → で	でんわ (denwa) — telephone
ど	do	と → ど	どこ (doko) — where

B Row (ば行) — from H Row

Character	Romaji	Base	Example Word
ば	ba	は → ば	ばしょ (basho) — place
び	bi	ひ → び	びじん (bijin) — beautiful person
ぶ	bu	ふ → ぶ	ぶた (buta) — pig
べ	be	へ → べ	べんきょう (benkyou) — study
ぼ	bo	ほ → ぼ	ぼうし (boushi) — hat

Note: じ (ji) and ぢ (ji) have the same pronunciation. Similarly, ず (zu) and づ (zu) sound the same. In practice, じ and ず are used far more often.

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Handakuten (゜) — P Row

The handakuten (半濁点) is a small circle (゜) added only to the H row to create "p" sounds:

P Row (ぱ行) — from H Row

Character	Romaji	Base	Example Word
ぱ	pa	は → ぱ	ぱん (pan) — bread
ぴ	pi	ひ → ぴ	ぴかぴか (pikapika) — shiny / sparkling
ぷ	pu	ふ → ぷ	てんぷら (tenpura) — tempura
ぺ	pe	へ → ぺ	ぺん (pen) — pen
ぽ	po	ほ → ぽ	たんぽぽ (tanpopo) — dandelion

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Combination Characters (拗音 — Youon)

Combination characters are formed by pairing a character from the i-column with a small や, ゆ, or よ:

How It Works