RARIRURERO Hiragana Flashcards — Printable, Front and Back

Free Printable Hiragana Flashcards for Beginners

These RARIRURERO hiragana flashcards drill the R row — the row that introduces Japanese's famous soft 'r' sound. The Japanese 'r' is a single tongue-tap, midway between an English r, l, and d, and it's the sound English speakers most often get wrong. Each card uses only kana from the first nine rows of the chart.

You get double-sided flashcards printed on letter-size paper (8.5 × 11 inches). The front of each card shows the Japanese word in hiragana; the back shows the English meaning plus the romaji reading. The R row opens up the all-purpose verb-stem ending る (every dictionary-form verb you've already seen — 食べる, 見る, 走る — ends in some form of this character).

What's on each card?

• Front: the Japanese word written in large hiragana, with the romaji pronunciation below.
• Back: the English meaning, mirrored so it lines up with the front when you print double-sided.
• Subtle StudyHiragana.com watermark on each card so the deck stays branded after cutting.

How to print and assemble

• Click the Print button above (or press Ctrl/Cmd + P).
• Choose two-sided printing and flip on the long edge — this keeps front and back aligned.
• Use standard 8.5" × 11" letter paper. Card stock works too if you want sturdier cards.
• Cut along the dashed lines to separate the six cards on each sheet.
• Optional: laminate the cards for longer life.

How to study with hiragana flashcards

The point of beginner hiragana flashcards isn't just memorising characters — it's connecting them to real vocabulary the moment you learn them. Use the deck this way:

• Hold a card so only the front (hiragana) is visible. Read it aloud and try to recall the meaning.
• Flip the card to check. If you got it right, set it in a "knew it" pile; if not, return it to the deck.
• Shuffle and repeat until the "didn't know it" pile is empty.
• Switch directions: look at the English meaning and try to recall the hiragana spelling. This is harder but builds active recall.

Why the R row matters

The R row introduces the single biggest pronunciation challenge for English speakers: the soft Japanese r. Don't roll it like a Spanish r and don't pronounce it like an English r — it's a single light tap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, almost a soft 'd' or 'l'. The R row also packs structural weight: る is the dictionary-form ending of every -ru verb (food, see, sleep, etc.), り shows up in the polite negative 〜りません, and ろ appears in the casual imperative 〜ろ. Once the R row clicks, both the sound and the grammar open up.

Keep practising

After you've mastered these RARIRURERO flashcards, deepen your hiragana skills with our other free tools:

• Interactive らりるれろ guide — pronunciation, stroke order, and a writing canvas to practice each character.
• Printable hiragana flashcards by character — single-character flashcard sheets for each row of the chart.
• Full hiragana chart — all 46 basic hiragana characters at a glance.
• StudyHiragana.com home — interactive practice with stroke order, recall games, and spaced repetition.