Japanese Kana and Basics: 200 Cards Starting from Zero

Nearly every beginner stalls on the same four pairs of kana, so those get their own cards.

200 cardsLast updated 2026-08-31

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Almost everyone learning kana confuses the same handful of shapes. Two characters differ only by a final loop. Two more are near mirror images. Two katakana differ only in where the dots sit and in the direction the strokes are written. These pairs are not hard, but nobody points them out, so learners discover them by getting them wrong repeatedly. This deck is 200 cards. Every hiragana and katakana appears, with the back giving the romanised reading and, where it applies, a line on the stroke family or the shape it resembles. The confusable pairs also get cards of their own. The remaining sections cover voiced and contracted sounds, long vowels and the small tsu, the core particles, and the greetings, numbers and phrases used from the first lesson. Kanji is avoided except for a handful of numbers and very common words, and glossed wherever it appears. That keeps the deck usable from the first day, before any kanji study begins. Once it is on a spaced-repetition schedule, the kana you read instantly stop coming back and the four or five you keep hesitating over return until they stop being a pause.

What happens when you add it

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The button opens Memly and the whole deck lands in your account.
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Each card gets its own schedule, based on how well you actually recall it.
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They are your cards afterwards — rewrite, delete or reorganize them freely.

What's inside

Showing 100 representative cards from the full 200-card deck.

Front	Back
あ — how is it read?	a as in father The first vowel. Three strokes, ending with a loop on the right.
い — how is it read?	i as in machine Two separate strokes, the left one longer.
う — how is it read?	u as in flute Two strokes. The short mark on top sits above the curve.
え — how is it read?	e as in bed Two strokes, with a flat top and a zigzag body.
お — how is it read?	o as in for Three strokes. It is distinguished from あ by the small mark on the right.
か — how is it read?	ka Three strokes. Adding a voicing mark gives が, read ga.
き — how is it read?	ki Four strokes in handwriting, often printed with the lower parts joined.
く — how is it read?	ku A single stroke shaped like an angle opening to the right.
け — how is it read?	ke Three strokes, with a vertical line on the left.
こ — how is it read?	ko Two short horizontal strokes.
さ — how is it read?	sa Three strokes. It mirrors ち, which curves the other way.
し — how is it read?	shi One stroke curving up at the bottom. Read shi, not si.
す — how is it read?	su Two strokes ending in a loop below.
せ — how is it read?	se Three strokes with a long horizontal line.
そ — how is it read?	so One or two strokes depending on the style, with a sharp zigzag.
た — how is it read?	ta Four strokes, resembling a plus sign beside a small ka.
ち — how is it read?	chi Two strokes. Read chi, not ti. It mirrors さ.
つ — how is it read?	tsu One stroke. Read tsu, not tu. A small つ marks a doubled consonant.
て — how is it read?	te One stroke with a hook at the end.
と — how is it read?	to Two strokes, a short dot beside a longer curve.
な — how is it read?	na Four strokes ending with a small loop.
に — how is it read?	ni Three strokes, with a vertical line on the left.
ぬ — how is it read?	nu Two strokes ending in a loop. Compare with め, which has no loop.
ね — how is it read?	ne Two strokes ending in a loop. Compare with れ and わ.
の — how is it read?	no One stroke forming a spiral. Also the possessive particle.
は — how is it read?	ha Three strokes. Read wa when used as the topic particle.
ひ — how is it read?	hi One stroke curving to the right.
ふ — how is it read?	fu Four strokes. The sound is between h and f.
へ — how is it read?	he One stroke shaped like a shallow peak. Read e as a particle.
ほ — how is it read?	ho Four strokes. It is は with an extra horizontal line.
ま — how is it read?	ma Three strokes, similar to は but with a loop at the bottom.
み — how is it read?	mi Two strokes with a loop on the left.
む — how is it read?	mu Three strokes with a dot at the upper right.
め — how is it read?	me Two strokes. It differs from ぬ by having no loop at the end.
も — how is it read?	mo Three strokes. Also the particle meaning also.
や — how is it read?	ya Three strokes. A small ゃ combines with the i-column kana.
ゆ — how is it read?	yu Two strokes with a large loop.
ら — how is it read?	ra Two strokes. The r sound is a light tap, between r and l.
る — how is it read?	ru One stroke ending in a loop. Compare with ろ, which has none.
わ — how is it read?	wa Two strokes. Compare with ね and れ, which differ at the end.
ぬ and め — how is it read?	nu and me Both start the same way, but only ぬ ends in a loop.
る and ろ — how is it read?	ru and ro Identical except that る ends in a loop.
ウ — how is it read?	u as in flute Three strokes. It is the base for ヴ in some loanwords.
カ — how is it read?	ka Two strokes. It resembles hiragana か without the final dot.
ケ — how is it read?	ke Three strokes. Compare with ク, which lacks the top stroke.
シ — how is it read?	shi Three strokes with the two dots on the left, written upward.
ソ — how is it read?	so Two strokes with the dot at the top, written downward.
ツ — how is it read?	tsu Three strokes with two dots on top, written downward.
ト — how is it read?	to Two strokes, a vertical with a short mark to the right.
ニ — how is it read?	ni Two horizontal strokes, the lower one longer.
ノ — how is it read?	no A single diagonal stroke. It appears inside several other katakana.
フ — how is it read?	fu One stroke. Compare with ワ and ク, which are similar.
マ — how is it read?	ma Two strokes.
ム — how is it read?	mu Two strokes.
モ — how is it read?	mo Three strokes, resembling hiragana も without the loop.
ヨ — how is it read?	yo Three strokes forming a comb shape.
ル — how is it read?	ru Two strokes.
ワ — how is it read?	wa Two strokes. Compare with ク and フ.
ン — how is it read?	n on its own Two strokes written upward. Compare with ソ, written downward.
シ and ツ — how is it read?	shi and tsu The dots sit on the left in シ and on top in ツ, and the stroke directions differ.
が — how is it read?	ga か with a voicing mark. The whole k-row voices to g.
じ — how is it read?	ji し with a voicing mark. Read ji rather than zi.
ぢ and づ — how is it read?	ji and zu Voiced ち and つ. They sound the same as じ and ず and are rare.
ぱ — how is it read?	pa は with a small circle instead of two dots.
きゃ — how is it read?	kya き with a small ゃ. The two kana make one syllable.
ちょ — how is it read?	cho ち with a small ょ.
the small tsu — how is it read?	sokuon A small っ that doubles the following consonant and adds a pause.
long vowel with う — how is it read?	ou or oo In hiragana, o and u sounds are lengthened by adding う.
long vowel with あ — how is it read?	aa The a sound is lengthened by adding another あ.
the topic particle は — how is it read?	wa Written は but read wa when it marks the topic.
the vowel u between voiceless sounds — how is it read?	devoicing The u in some syllables is barely voiced between voiceless consonants.
pitch accent — how is it read?	accent Japanese distinguishes words by pitch pattern rather than stress.
writing loanwords — how is it read?	gairaigo Foreign words are written in katakana and adapted to Japanese sounds.
l and r in loanwords — how is it read?	r-row for both Japanese has no separate l sound, so both become the r-row.
は as a particle — how is it read?	wa Marks the topic of the sentence, the thing being talked about.
は or が — how is it read?	wa or ga は presents known information as the topic and が introduces or identifies.
に for time — how is it read?	ni Marks a specific point in time.
に for existence — how is it read?	ni Marks the place where something or someone exists.
に or で — how is it read?	ni or de に marks existence or destination, and で marks where an action takes place.
と for and — how is it read?	to Joins nouns in a complete list.
の for possession — how is it read?	no Links two nouns, with the modifier coming first.
か as a question marker — how is it read?	ka Placed at the end of a sentence to make it a question.
です — how is it read?	desu The polite copula, placed at the end of a sentence.
ます — how is it read?	masu The polite present and future ending for verbs.
ませんでした — how is it read?	masen deshita The polite past negative verb ending.
dropping the subject — how is it read?	omission The subject is left out when it is clear from context.
これ, それ and あれ — how is it read?	kore, sore and are This near me, that near you, and that over there.
ここ, そこ and あそこ — how is it read?	koko, soko and asoko Here, there and over there as places.
おはようございます — how is it read?	ohayou gozaimasu The polite morning greeting. The short form おはよう is casual.
こんばんは — how is it read?	konbanwa The evening greeting. It also ends in は, read wa.
ありがとうございます — how is it read?	arigatou gozaimasu The polite way to say thank you. ありがとう alone is casual.
ごめんなさい — how is it read?	gomen nasai An apology, more personal than すみません.
いただきます — how is it read?	itadakimasu Said before eating.
はい and いいえ — how is it read?	hai and iie Yes and no. はい also signals that you are listening.
いち, に, さん — how is it read?	ichi, ni, san One, two and three. These are the readings used for counting.
く and きゅう — how is it read?	ku and kyuu Two readings for nine. きゅう is the more common one.
げつようび — how is it read?	getsuyoubi Monday. All the day names end in ようび.
ひと — how is it read?	hito Person. It is a very common everyday noun.
たべる — how is it read?	taberu To eat. The polite form is たべます.
する — how is it read?	suru To do. The polite form is します, and it combines with many nouns.

Frequently asked

What is in each section of the deck?

Hiragana has 50 cards, katakana 50, sounds and spelling 35, particles and sentence basics 35, and first words and phrases 30, for 200 in total. Every card carries section and subtopic tags, so you can drill only hiragana, only the confusable shapes, or only the particles.

Do I need to know any Japanese to start?

None at all. The deck begins with the five vowels and builds from there. By the end you can read both syllabaries, handle the sound changes that written kana hide, use the core particles, and produce the phrases a first lesson covers.

Does it teach kanji?

No, and that is deliberate. Kanji study is a separate and much longer project, and starting it before kana are automatic slows both down. A few numbers and very common words appear in kanji with a gloss, because you will meet them immediately, but nothing more.

Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?

Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and does not use your AI allowance, so the free plan imports all 200 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.

Will importing it twice create duplicates?

No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.

Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?

Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.

Can I edit the cards after importing?

Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.