Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 8

In this lesson you are going to learn how to read and write "や", "ゆ" and "よ".

Yōon Hiragana
Certain sounds ending with -い(i) ( き(ki), し(shi), ち(chi), に(ni), ひ(hi), み(mi), り(ri) and their voiced variants) can be followed by small versions (ゃ, ゅ, and ょ) of the hiragana や(ya), ゆ(yu), and よ(yo). In this case, the two hiragana are not pronounced individually, but rather as one sound.

In most cases, the compound sound is the consonant of the base syllable followed by the modifier (fjord may be an example of a similar compound sound in English):
 * きゃ (kya)
 * きゅ (kyu)
 * きょ (kyo)

In other cases the y sound disappears entirely:
 * しゃ (sha)
 * しゅ (shu)
 * しょ (sho)

Look at the Kana Chart for the others.