っ / ッ — the little tsu

A small つ is not pronounced "tsu"! It marks a tiny pause that doubles the next consonant. Full-size つ says "tsu"; the small one just holds your breath for a beat.

゛ and ゜ — dakuten & handakuten

Two little dots ゛ make a sound voiced: k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b. The tiny circle ゜ only goes on the h-row and makes p. Same kana shape, new sound!

ぢ and づ are rare — they sound exactly like じ and ず. You'll almost always see じ and ず instead.

ゃ ゅ ょ — the small ya, yu, yo

A small ゃ/ゅ/ょ glues onto the kana before it to blend into one syllable: き + small ゃ = kya (one beat). A full-size や would be two beats: ki-ya.

The classic trap — one is a hospital, the other a beauty salon:

Long vowels — stretch it out

In hiragana a vowel is stretched by adding another vowel kana (お-row usually adds う). In katakana it's the long dash ー. The length can change the word completely!

は・へ・を — sneaky particles

Three kana change sound when they work as grammar particles: は is read wa as the topic marker, へ is read e as "towards", and を (read o) is used only as the object marker — you'll never meet it inside a normal word.

Lookalike alert! 👀