01
Read hiragana
- Time
- 8 days
- Items
- 71
You can sound out any Japanese word written in kana, which is the prerequisite for every other step on this page.
Every step from nothing to N3, in order, with what each one actually costs you in days.
There is no trick and nobody is going to make this quick. What we can do is tell you the truth about the size of it: every number below is counted from the 22,475 words and 2,211kanji actually sitting in this site’s database, divided by a daily pace. Nothing here is an estimate someone felt was about right.
Every step is free and most of them work without an account. Where a step needs one, it says so.
Pick the column that matches the life you actually have. These count new words and kanji introduced per day — reviews stack on top and take a few more minutes, and missing days stretches everything, so treat the numbers as a floor rather than a schedule.
| Through … | Items | Casual5/day | Steady10/day | Committed20/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kana | 142 | 4 weeks | 2 weeks | 8 days |
| JLPT N5 | 941 | 6 months | 3 months | 7 weeks |
| JLPT N4 | 1,775 | 12 months | 6 months | 3 months |
| JLPT N3 | 4,280 | 2 years 4 months | 14 months | 7 months |
Two alphabets and a handful of survival words. This is the only part of the road with a hard finish line, and it is the part everyone underestimates skipping.
You can sound out any Japanese word written in kana, which is the prerequisite for every other step on this page.
Menus, brand names and every borrowed word stop being a wall. The Sounds and Pairs drills exist because カ and ケ are the ones that get you.
The only level here with a full course: 12 lessons, 62 grammar points, 79 kanji and 720 words, plus a timed mock exam. If you finish this stage you can pass N5.
Each lesson introduces a grammar pattern, then drills it against words you have already met. This is the spine of the stage — everything else hangs off it.
Every one broken into named components with a memory hook, and a stroke diagram. Run alongside the lessons, not after them.
668 words, 166 kanji and 45 grammar points are here. The lessons are not — this stage is a reference shelf and a review queue rather than a guided course, and it is worth knowing that before you start it.
More than twice the N5 set, and the point at which kanji stops being a side quest.
Most of them now carry a human-written example sentence, so fill-in-the-sentence review works at this level too.
2138 words and 367 kanji, with example sentences on most of the vocabulary. This is where a course stops being the right tool anyway — past N4, reading real Japanese beats working through anyone's syllabus.
The largest single jump in the whole JLPT ladder, and the one most people stall on.
Mine words out of whatever you are actually reading and they join the same review queue as everything else. This is the step that replaces the course.
N5 is the only level with a written course. N4 and N3 have the words, the kanji and — at N4 — the grammar points, but no lessons around them, so from Stage 3 onwards this is a reference shelf and a review queue rather than something that holds your hand. We would rather say that here than let you find it out three months in.
Everything on this page is free and always will be. There is no paid tier that unlocks a step. What we actually hold counts the whole library, updated as it grows.
Prices, dates, times and phone numbers — the first Japanese most people actually use.
The fixed phrases that come up in the first minute of any conversation.
Every word with audio and a human-written example sentence, so you meet it in a sentence rather than as a flashcard alone.
Spaced repetition (FSRS) decides what comes back and when, across six question modes — meaning, reading, listening, typing, recall and fill-in-the-sentence. Skipping days is what actually costs people the language.
One page per pattern, with its structure and examples. Use it when a lesson raises a question, not as something to read front to back.
All four sections, timed, with a real pass-line estimate and per-section feedback. Sit it early and badly — it tells you which section to work on.
The patterns themselves are written up. What is missing is the lesson around them.
There is no N4 course yet. Writing lessons means writing Japanese prose and dialogue, which needs a fluent reader we do not have — so rather than generate something plausible and wrong, we have left it undone and said so.
Search by Japanese, romaji or English. Every entry links to its kanji, its example sentences and the words around it — which is the whole point of having them in one place.