まみむめも — The M Row
Why the M row?
After the H row's irregular ふ and the topic-particle quirks of は and へ, the M row is another regular breather: ま, み, む, め, も all follow the consonant-plus-vowel pattern with no surprises. It packs in essential sensory and family vocabulary — 目 (eye), 耳 (ear), 見る (to see), 娘 (daughter) — and the all-purpose noun-suffix 物 (\"thing\") that builds compounds like 食べ物 (food), 飲み物 (drink), 着物 (clothes / kimono).
Pronunciation at a glance
Words you can read with the M row
With the vowels and the K, S, T, N, H, and M rows in hand, you can read essential everyday vocabulary — the senses (eye, ear), family (daughter), and the all-purpose noun 物 (\"thing\"). These words use only characters from the first seven rows of the chart. Print these as flashcards →
What's next
After the M row, the next step is the smaller や-row (や ゆ よ) — only three characters this time. After that, two more rows (ら-row and わ-row + ん) wrap up the chart.