Many of you who might be reading my blog posts, might be already familiar with Hiragana (平仮名、ひらがな). Hiragana (平仮名、ひらがな) is the basic form of writing in Japanese. Among the three styles of writing, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in Japanese, Hiragana is the most simple and the first style you should learn when learning Japanese.

Today, I would like to show you a simple Hiragana Reading Game. This game is possible because Hiragana is unique in that each syllable is represented by one character.

Try reading the following Hiragana sentence.

わるいにわとりとわにいるわ

WARUI NIWATORI TO WANI IRUWA

Did you notice something in this sentence? Well, if you look closely, you will see that you read the same way left to right, and right to left (or from beginning to end, end to beginning). It means the same exact thing no matter which way you read this sentence.

Each word means as follows:

わるい　=> bad

にわとり => chicken

と => and

わに ==> alligator

いるわ => are there

So, the sentence means, “A bad chicken and an alligator are there.”

 

 

Let’s try another one.

ぞうくんぱんくうぞ

ZOKUN PAN KUUZO

Try reading this sentence from the left, and then from the right. Hiragana’s are arranged in the same way however you read it.

ぞう くん　==> elephant (ぞうmeans an elephant. くん is often used to indicate “boyish” nature of the subject. )

ぱん ==> bread

くうぞ ==> will eat

With this said, the sentence means, ” An elephant will eat bread”.

 

Try reading the next sentence.

このらいおんおいらのこ

KONO RAION OIRANOKO

この　==> this

らいおん ==> lion

おいらの ==> my

こ ==> baby, child

This sentence means, ” This lion is my baby (child).”

 

This one is much simpler one.

しんぶんし

SHINBUNSHI

しんぶんし means “newspaper” in Japanese.

 

Lastly, here is another one.

わたしまけましたわ

WATASHI MAKEMASHITAWA

わたし　==> I

まけましたわ ==> lost

This sentence simply means, ” I lost.”

 

Can you make a unique sentence like this using the Hiragana you might know already? Share with me if you come up with one!