Hiragana
Hiragana is one of the two kana syllabaries used in Japanese.
It is often used for grammar endings, native Japanese words, and words written without kanji.
Overview
Hiragana has 46 basic symbols.
Each symbol usually represents one mora, a rhythmic unit of Japanese.
History
Hiragana developed from simplified cursive forms of Chinese characters.
It became one of the core writing systems of Japanese.
Where it is used
Modern Japanese uses hiragana together with katakana and kanji.
Hiragana is especially common for grammatical endings and many everyday words.
Watch out
Some hiragana characters look similar at first, especially さ, き, ち, ぬ, め and わ for beginners.
It helps to learn them by row: a-row, ka-row, sa-row, and so on.