When "ha" は is "wa" - How to Tell If It's Pronounced wa or ha

If you have started learning Japanese you might have noticed or been told that the hiragana  ha は is sometimes pronounced wa . T…

Lessons About The Japanese Writing System

The first thing you should get acquainted with if you are beginning to learn Japanese is the way Japanese is written. Here are so…

「」『』 - Japanese Quotation Marks - Usage & Differences

In Japanese, there are four weird bracket symbols that like to show up from time to time: 「 and 」, and『 and 』. These corner brack…

っ - Small Tsu つ - How It's Used - What It Means & More

In Japanese, there are two types of tsu characters. The normal tsu つ, and the small tsu  っ, which is smaller. You can notice th…

Japanese Writing Directions - Top to Bottom, Right to Left & Others - Vertical & Horizontal

You may have heard that Japanese is written top to bottom, right to left, but is that really true? Is Japanese writing vertical i…

ゐ, ゑ, ヰ, ヱ - wi, we - Rare Hiragana & Katakana Characters in Japanese

The kana in the Japanese hiragana can be easy to confuse sometimes. There's mi み, ro ろ and  ru る, and they all look like…

ー - Prolonged Sound Mark - Meaning - Vertical Line in Japanese or Long Dash

One of the most artistically inspired symbols in the Japanese language is the prolonged sound mark. It looks like a longer horizo…

ヴ - What Is It? - Weird "u" ウ Kana With Diacritic

If you have been reading manga for a while you might have encountered this very strange kana: ヴ. The obvious problem with it is t…