Vowel
あいうえお — The Vowel Row
01
Why start here?
Japanese has only five vowel sounds, and they never change. Where English 'a' shifts across cat, car, able, any, about, the Japanese あ is always the same crisp 'a'. Learn these five and every other kana is just a consonant plus one of them: か = k + a, さ = s + a, た = t + a.
Memory trick: read aloud “ah, ee, ooh, eh, oh” in order — that's the actual vowel sequence, short and consistent every time.
02
Pronunciation at a glance
03
Words you can read with just the vowels
You don't need the rest of the chart to start reading real Japanese. These everyday words are built entirely from the five vowels. Print these as flashcards →
あいailove
あおaoblue · green
いえiehouse
うえueabove, on top
おいoinephew
あうauto meet
いうiuto say
おうouking
いいiigood
いいえiieno
あおいaoiblue, pale
ええeeyes (casual)
うおuofish
おおいooimany
ああaaah, oh
04
What's next
Once you can read and write all five vowels reliably, the next step is the か-row (か き く け こ) — the same five vowels with a 'k' in front. From there the chart fills in one consonant family at a time.