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Dakuten, small kana and long vowels

The basic chart gives you 46 sounds — but Japanese has more than that. The trick is that the extra sounds aren't new characters to learn: they're the same kana with a small mark added, a half-size kana tucked beside them, or a vowel stretched out. Master these four moves and the whole syllabary opens up.

1. The voicing marks: dakuten and handakuten

Two tiny strokes in the top-right corner — the dakuten ゛ (also called ten-ten, "dots") — turn an unvoiced sound into its voiced partner. Your mouth makes the same shape; you just switch your voice on. This single mark covers four whole rows of the chart at once.

Dakuten ゛— the voiced rows

Base		Voiced	Shift
かka	→	がga	k → g
さsa	→	ざza	s → z
たta	→	だda	t → d
はha	→	ばba	h → b

The handakuten ゜ — a small circle (maru) — is the odd one out. It applies to only the h-row, and instead of voicing it gives you the p sounds:

Handakuten ゜— the p-row (h-row only)

Base		+ ゜	Shift
はha	→	ぱpa	h → p
ひhi	→	ぴpi	h → p
ふfu	→	ぷpu	f → p

2. The small combos: yōon (きゃ, しゅ, ちょ)

To write sounds like kya, sho or cho, Japanese takes any kana ending in -i and tacks on a half-size ゃ, ゅ or ょ. These are called yōon. The crucial thing: the pair is one beat (one mora), not two — the small kana slides into the same syllable.

The same -i kana, plain then combined

-i kana	+ ゃ	+ ゅ	+ ょ
きki	きゃkya	きゅkyu	きょkyo
しshi	しゃsha	しゅshu	しょsho
ちchi	ちゃcha	ちゅchu	ちょcho
にni	にゃnya	にゅnyu	にょnyo
りri	りゃrya	りゅryu	りょryo
じji	じゃja	じゅju	じょjo

The same trick works on every -i kana: ぎ gives gya/gyu/gyo, ひ gives hya/hyu/hyo, び bya, ぴ pya, み mya. Notice the romaji is tidy — drop the i from the base and add y + vowel — with the sole exceptions of the sh-, ch- and j- rows, which were already irregular on the basic chart.

3. The double consonant: small っ (sokuon)

A half-size っ — a shrunken tsu — is the sokuon, and it has no sound of its own. What it does is double the consonant that follows it, with a tiny held pause, like the catch in the middle of "book-keeper". In romaji you simply write that consonant twice.

Small っ in action

Word	Romaji	Meaning
がっこう	gakkō	school
きって	kitte	postage stamp
ざっし	zasshi	magazine
いっぱい	ippai	full / a lot

4. Long vowels: stretching the sound

Holding a vowel for two beats instead of one is the last piece — and again, it changes meaning, so it's not optional. How you write a long vowel depends on the script.

In hiragana — add a vowel kana

You extend a vowel by writing a second vowel kana after it. Four of the five are intuitive; e and o are the ones with a quirk:

How each long vowel is usually written

Long	Add	Example	Reads as
ā	あ	おかあさん	okāsan · mother
ū	う	くうき	kūki · air
ī	い	おにいさん	oniisan · big brother
ē	い	せんせい	sensei → sensē · teacher
ō	う	おとうさん	otōsan · father

So long e is normally written with an い (sensei is pronounced sensē), and long o with an う (otōsan, がっこう gakkō). A short list of words break the rule and double the literal vowel instead — おおきい (ōkii, big), とおい (tōi, far), こおり (kōri, ice), and おねえさん (onēsan, big sister) — and those are simply learned one by one.

In katakana — one bar does it all

Katakana throws the guesswork out. Every long vowel, no matter which one, is written with a single horizontal bar ー (the chōonpu):

The katakana long bar ー

Word	Romaji	Meaning
ラーメン	rāmen	ramen
コーヒー	kōhī	coffee
セーター	sētā	sweater
ケーキ	kēki	cake

The four moves, together

1. Dakuten ゛ voices a kana: か→が, さ→ざ, た→だ, は→ば. Handakuten ゜ makes the h-row into p: は→ぱ.
2. Yōon — any -i kana + small ゃゅょ — gives kya, sha, cho… as a single beat. Watch the size.
3. Sokuon — small っ — doubles the next consonant and adds a held beat: きって kitte.
4. Long vowels — add う/い in hiragana (otōsan, sensei) or a ー bar in katakana (rāmen). Always two beats.

New to the scripts? Start with the hiragana chart & reading guide or the katakana guide. Wondering which script is which? See hiragana vs katakana.