Hiragana

Table of Hiragana Characters

Table 4. Long Vowels and Double Consonants

This is a general guide and is not exhaustive.

VOWEL LENGTHENING	Examples
To indicate the long aa sound, the letter a is added to an a-row syllable.	aa saa etc.
To indicate the long ii sound, the letter i is added to an i-row syllable.	ii chii jii etc.
To indicate the long uu sound, the letter u is added to a u-row syllable.	kuu tsuu kyuu shuu etc.
To indicate the long ee sound, the letter i is added to an e-row syllable. (Note: Although indicated with an i, ei is actually a lengthened e sound in pronunciation. The ei pronunciation is preserved only in a few local dialects.)	sei tei hei gei etc.
To indicate the long oo sound, the letter u is added to an o-row syllable. There are a few exceptional words where the long oo sound is indicated with an o (for examples, see right). (Note: This site romanises long o as oo. This runs counter to the recent trend to use ou for and oo for . The reasons for this  site's romanisation are: (1) There is no distinction in pronunciation between ou and oo. The two can thus be written oo without anything being lost. (2) As well as the long oo sound, is also used to write the true ou sound found in words like 'to chase, pursue'. This difference needs to be preserved.)	koo soo goo choo joo byoo etc. Long oo using : tooi 'far' toori 'road' ookii 'big, large' koori 'ice' etc.
Sometimes drawing out of a vowel sound can be indicated with a swung dash or a reduced size vowel plus .	aa 'aah!' naa (particle at end of sentence).
CONSONANT DOUBLING
Doubling of stop consonants is indicated with a small tsu .	katta 'bought/won' Hattori (name) kappa 'kappa' kukkiri 'clear(ly)' etc.
Doubling of nasal consonants is indicated with an n.	anmari 'not very' honnori 'faintly' etc.

See also....

Table 1: The Standard Goju-on

Table 2: Syllables with Voiced Consonants or 'P'

Table 3: Syllables with Ya, Yu, or Yo

Katakana