Hiragana: Lesson 16 - 'た' [ta] & 'だ' [da]

Pronunciation:
'た' is romanized 'ta' and pronounced ‘ta’ as in ‘star’.

Words with 'た':-
'た' at the beginning:

• 田/た (ta -> ricefield)
• 竹/たけ (take -> bamboo)
• 鷹/たか (taka -> falcon; hawk)
• 建物/たてもの (tatemono -> building)
• 対/たい (tai -> versus; anti)
• 畳/たたみ (tatami -> tatami mat)
• 食べる/たべる (taberu -> to eat)

Stroke order:

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The character 'た' may also be combined with a dakuten, thus changing it to ‘だ’ in hiragana, and 'da' in Hepburn romanization. With the dakuten added the pronunciation changes to 'da'. た + " (dakuten) = だ (look below)

Pronunciation:

‘だ’ is romanized ‘da’, pronounced ‘da’ as in ‘dan’.

Words with 'だ':

• 大仏/だいぶつ (daibutsu -> large statue of Buddha)
• 出す/だす (dasu -> to take out, to show, to turn in, to publish, to send, to begin, to serve food)
• だから (dakara -> so; therefore)

Task: You shall write 'た' & 'だ' 50 - 100 times in your textbook. If you want, like with the previous lessons, write 'た' 70 times and 'だ' 30 times. Memorize the shape, the stroke order, the sound, the pronunciation (echo the sound of the character each time you write it down), etc.