Frequently asked questions
Everything people ask before (and while) learning hiragana and katakana — answered straight, with deeper dives in our kana guides.
Is KanaLearn free?
Yes — KanaLearn is free on the App Store, with no subscription, no ads, and no account. All 92 hiragana and katakana characters, the audio, stroke-order animations, and the daily review are included.
How long does it take to learn hiragana and katakana?
Most beginners can read all 46 basic hiragana in about a week of short daily sessions, and both scripts — 92 characters — comfortably within three to four weeks. Cramming them in a weekend is possible, but without spaced review most of it fades within days; a steady 10 minutes a day is what makes kana stick.
Should I learn hiragana or katakana first?
Learn hiragana first. It covers every native Japanese sound, carries the grammar of every sentence, and is what beginner textbooks and JLPT N5 material assume you can read. Katakana comes second — and it goes faster, because you already know all the sounds and just attach new shapes to them.
What is the best way to memorize kana?
Combine four things: learn in small groups (five characters at a time), test yourself with real recall instead of re-reading charts, write each character with correct stroke order, and review on a spaced schedule so each kana comes back right before you would forget it. KanaLearn builds all four into one guided loop.
How do I tell シ (shi) and ツ (tsu) apart?
Look at the direction of the strokes. In シ (shi) the short strokes stack vertically on the left and the long stroke sweeps up from the bottom; in ツ (tsu) the short strokes line up across the top and the long stroke sweeps down. The same logic separates ソ (so, downward) from ン (n, upward). Their kanji origins explain why — and make the difference easy to remember.
Does stroke order matter for hiragana and katakana?
Yes — more than most beginners expect. Correct stroke order makes your handwriting legible (especially written quickly), builds the muscle memory that speeds up recall, and is the foundation you will reuse for every kanji later. It is much easier to learn correctly now than to unlearn bad habits after.
Why does Japanese have two alphabets?
Hiragana and katakana are two syllabaries with the same 46 sounds but different jobs: hiragana writes native words and grammar, katakana writes loanwords, foreign names, and emphasis. Both were born from kanji over a thousand years ago — hiragana as flowing, cursive kanji, katakana as sharp kanji fragments — which is why every kana has an origin story.
Does KanaLearn work offline?
Yes. Everything — lessons, quizzes, stroke-order animations, and audio — works with no internet connection. Pronunciation uses your iPhone’s built-in Japanese voice, so it plays instantly and never needs a download or a signal.
Does KanaLearn use spaced repetition?
Yes — a gentle Leitner spaced-repetition system schedules every character you’ve learned. Daily Review shows at most about 12 due cards, always the most overdue and weakest first. If you miss days, nothing piles up: no wall of overdue reviews, no penalty, and new lessons are never locked behind review debt.
Do I need to know kanji before learning kana?
No — kana comes first, kanji later. Hiragana and katakana are the standard starting point for reading Japanese, and every kanji textbook assumes you already read them. KanaLearn does use a little kanji history the other way around: short origin stories show the kanji each kana was born from, which makes the shapes more memorable.
Is KanaLearn enough for the JLPT N5?
KanaLearn covers the reading and writing of all basic hiragana and katakana — the script foundation the JLPT N5 assumes before you open a single practice test. You’ll still need vocabulary, grammar, and listening practice from a textbook or course; KanaLearn gets the kana out of the way so those resources actually make sense.
What devices does KanaLearn run on?
KanaLearn is a native iPhone app and requires iOS 17 or later. There is currently no Android, iPad-optimized, or web version. It’s a small download and stores all progress on your device — no account needed.
