Hiragana Practice Sheets PDF: Free Printable Tracing

Here is a free hiragana practice sheets PDF with stroke order arrows, tracing guides, and blank writing grids for all 46 characters, plus dakuten and combination sounds. No email and no signup, just download, print on Letter or A4, and start writing today.

Download Your Free Hiragana Practice Sheets PDF

Grab the full bundle here: free hiragana practice sheets (PDF). It is free to download, with nothing to sign up for.

The bundle includes:

• Tracing sheets with numbered stroke order arrows for every character
• Writing practice squares that step down from full guide lines to lighter ones
• Blank hiragana grid paper for free writing from memory
• A printable hiragana chart for quick reference on your wall or desk
• A separate kids version with larger squares and lighter trace guides
• Both Letter (8.5 x 11 inch) and A4 sizes in the same download

Print the page you need, or print the whole set and work through it over a couple of weeks.

What Is Inside These Hiragana Worksheets

Each character gets its own row so you have room to practice. The row starts with a clear example, then arrows, then space to trace and write.

Here is how the four sheet types fit together:

Sheet type	What it shows	Best for
Tracing sheets	Light gray characters with numbered arrows	Learning the strokes and stroke order
Practice squares	Faint guide that fades across the row	Writing with less and less help
Blank grid paper	Empty evenly sized squares	Free writing from memory
Hiragana chart	All characters on one page	Quick reference and review

The chart and the grids work for any age. The kids version simply uses bigger squares and softer lines, which is easier for small hands and new writers.

How to Print the Sheets (Letter and A4)

The bundle has two sizes so the squares stay the right size wherever you are. Pick the one that matches your printer and paper.

1. Open the PDF and choose either the Letter or A4 file.
2. In your print dialog, set scaling to 100% or Actual size, not “Fit to page”. This keeps the practice squares large enough to write in.
3. Print in black and white to save ink. The guide lines are designed to read clearly in grayscale.
4. For repeat practice, print several copies of the blank grid paper, or slip one sheet into a clear plastic sleeve and write on it with a dry-erase marker.

If your characters come out too small, it is almost always the scaling setting. Set it back to 100% and print again.

How to Use the Sheets: Trace, Then Write, Then Free Write

There is no single right way to practice; do what feels right for you. That said, a simple trace, then write, then free write order helps most beginners build muscle memory.

1. Trace. Follow the arrows and trace over the gray characters. Move slowly and keep the stroke order in mind. Speed comes later.
2. Write with a guide. Move into the practice squares where the guide fades. Copy the example at the start of the row and check your shape against it.
3. Free write. Use the blank grid paper to write each character from memory. Say the sound out loud as you write so the shape and the sound stick together.
4. Read it back. Cover your work, then test yourself by sound: can you write か when you hear “ka”? Can you read it when you see it?

That last step matters more than it looks. Writing by hand and reading at a glance are two different skills, and you want both.

Hiragana Stroke Order: The Few Rules That Cover Almost Everything

Stroke order looks like a long list of exceptions at first. It is not. A handful of rules cover almost every character, and the sheets show the arrows so you can see them in action.

The main stroke order rules:

• Top to bottom. Strokes that stack go from the top down.
• Left to right. When strokes sit side by side, start on the left.
• Horizontal before vertical when they cross, as in the shape of き.
• Outside before inside for shapes that enclose space.
• Center first for some symmetrical characters, then the sides.

Is stroke order strictly required? Not to be understood. But it makes your characters balanced, your writing faster, and your handwriting easier to read later, so it is worth learning from the start.

For a moving example, watch the animated stroke-order demo, then practice the same character on the tracing sheet while the motion is fresh.

The Full Hiragana Set the Sheets Cover (Basic, Dakuten, Combination Sounds)

Some worksheet pages stop at the basic 46 and leave out the rest. These sheets cover the complete set in one place, so you are not hunting for the missing pieces later.

Group	What it is	How many	Example
Basic hiragana	The core characters every word starts from	46	か ki, さ sa, な na
Dakuten	A basic character plus a two-dot mark, softening the sound	20	か ka becomes が ga
Handakuten	The h-row plus a small circle mark	5	は ha becomes ぱ pa
Combination sounds (yoon)	A character joined with a small や, ゆ, or よ	around 33	き + small ゃ becomes きゃ kya

The basic 46 are the foundation. Once you know them, dakuten and handakuten are just the same characters with a small mark added. Combination sounds join an i-row character with a small ya, yu, or yo, and they appear in everyday words all the time, so do not skip them.

A Simple Daily Practice Routine

Short and steady beats long and rare. Ten to fifteen minutes a day will carry you a long way in a couple of weeks.

A routine that works for many learners:

1. Warm up (2 minutes). Read yesterday’s characters off the chart by sound.
2. Learn a new row (5 minutes). Trace one row, for example the か-line: か, き, く, け, こ.
3. Write it (5 minutes). Move to the practice squares and write the row with less help.
4. Free write (3 minutes). On blank grid paper, write the new characters from memory.

Cover one or two rows a day. By the time you reach the end of the chart, the early rows will already feel familiar from your warm-ups.

Tips for Beginners and for Kids

For beginners:

• Say the sound out loud every time you write a character. Sound and shape learn faster together.
• Do not chase neat handwriting on day one. Clear and correct first, pretty later.
• Mix in reading. Look at each character and name it without writing, so you can recognize it at speed.
• Use the chart as a safety net, then cover it and test yourself. The interactive kana chart works as that safety net on your phone, with audio for every character.

For kids:

• Use the kids version with larger squares and lighter guide lines.
• Keep sessions short and playful, five to ten minutes is plenty.
• Let them trace with a colored pencil so the strokes feel fun.
• Celebrate finished rows. A sticker on a completed sheet goes a long way.

You can find more printables and guides on the learn hub whenever you are ready for the next step.

How Kana Conbini can help

Paper builds the strokes by hand. Recognition and reading turn those characters into something you can read at a glance. Kana Conbini is one friendly, free-to-start option that brings both together if you want it.

• Write Kanji (書き取り) mirrors these sheets on your phone: trace all 46 hiragana in correct stroke order, with guides that fade as you improve.
• Conbini Run is a reading game where you recognize hiragana, katakana, and kanji to serve customers, which bridges paper practice to real reading.
• Smart reviews bring each character back right before you would forget it, so practice sticks.
• Native Japanese voice on every word ties the sound to the shape you just wrote.
• Free to start on iPhone and Android, with no subscription needed to begin.

Print the free practice sheets to start by hand today, and head back to the home page whenever you want to add reading practice to your routine.