Short guides to Japanese, with audio and practice
Each guide answers one question you might type into a search box: how a verb form works, what a slang word really means, or why a sound gives you away. You get the rule, the sounds, a few lines you can say today, and a quick check at the end. Kana reads every example aloud.
Guides
The Japanese te-form: how to make it and what it doesMake the て-form by the last kana, dodge the て vs. た mix-up, and practice with a converter.
Coming next: How to say no in Japanese, What yabai means, Japanese pronunciation.
What every guide has
- Audio for every example. You hear the line before you say it. The voice is Kana’s, a synthetic voice checked by a native speaker.
- A practice at the end. Three to nine quick questions, so you know whether it stuck.
- Plain English. Short sentences, and every grammar word gets a one-line explanation the first time it appears.
- Furigana or romaji, your choice. The gear button at the bottom right of each guide switches the reading aid, and the choice is saved on your device.
Who writes these
Hayato Hoshikawa, who builds HiKana, writes each guide. A native Japanese speaker reads the text and listens to the audio before a guide goes up. If you spot a mistake, tell us and we will fix it.
Then say it to Kana
Reading is the easy half. HiKana is the app where you say the lines to Kana and she tells you what landed and what to fix.