Learning Overview

Kana-only Vocab

The Kana-only Vocab words don’t contain any kanji at all. Sometimes these will be in hiragana when they’re native Japanese words that just don’t use kanji, or if they've been imported from another language they'll be written in katakana. If your only focus with this site is to learn kanji, then those can and should be skipped entirely. If your goal here is to learn all types of Japanese vocabulary, then you can add in the Kana-only Vocab lessons as well.

The learning philosophy behind Kana-only Vocab is a little different. First — there’s no complex kanji to learn so we don’t use mnemonics for those. Instead we just rely on the SRS system to make them stick. Second — in reviews we give the definition of the word, and ask for the reading. That’s because the reading is the hard part to remember. If you can recall the reading from the definition, then you should be able to both read and understand those words when they come up, as well as recall them to be able to use in conversation. Fair warning — Kana-only Vocab can be a bit annoying sometimes. Trying to remember where the ー and ッ go in some words can be tough, but that’s why we do them. With practice even the harder ones will become easier, and you’ll be able to use them more effectively when speaking or writing.