Let's Learn Japanese!

Hiragana Reading Practice

Sate, sate, sate...
Since you have now practiced and familiarized the whole Hiragana alphabet, it's time to test your progress!!

[ Quick flex: I got this materials from crunchynihongo.com. Such a good site to learn!]

Now, we will try to read some stories written in hiragana. There's no need to understand each words and its meanings yet. We will first try our reading skills!

But before that, here's what you need to know:

Some hiragana are read differently. These hiragana are being used as particles in a sentence.

     * A particle is a word that has a grammatical function but does not fit into the main parts of speech (i.e. noun, verb, adverb). Particles do not change.

  Example:
The infinitive 'to' in 'to fly' is an example of a particle, although it can also act as a preposition, e.g. 'I'm going to Spain next week'.

Similarly, japanese particles are small words that indicate relations of words within a sentence. 

There are many different types of japanese particles and their uses but we will not talk about it today. Why I brought it up you may ask? Well, because there are some hiragana characters that are read differently when they are used as particles in a sentence.

• は A particle to mark topic, instead of HA it is read as WA
• へ A particle to mark direction of movement, instead og HE is read as E
• を A particle to mark direct object, instead of WO is read as O

But don't worry about that too much! You don't have to memorize their uses.

It's hard to pinpoint words in japanese because they don't use spaces. That is also one of the uses of particles, so that we can know what the noun, verb or the parts of the sentence are. Since, you can easily mistake particles as part of the words itself, I will be underlining the particles para di kayo malito.

Saa, iku wa yo!

かぐやひめ – The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Part 1 : A Golden Bamboo

1. むかし、 みやこ の ちかく の むら に たけとり の おきな と よばれて いる おじいさん が いました。

2. おじいさん は まいにちやま へ いって たけ を とり, それ で かご を あみ、 ざる を つくって くらして いました。

3. ある ひ、 おじいさん が たけ を きろう と したら ねもと の ぴかぴか ひかる たけ が ありました。「ふしぎな たけ だ。」

      *「 」 these are the parenthesis symbol in japanese.

4. おじいさん は びっくりして その たけ を そっと きって みました。すると どう でしょう。 たけ の なか に ちいさな おんな の こ が いました。

5.「なんて かわいい こ だ。」おじいさん は おおよろこび で おんなのこ を だきあげ、いえ に つれて かえりました。