Dakuten and Handakuten Explained: Hiragana Voicing Marks (゛and ゜)

Once you have learned the 46 basic hiragana, Japanese adds two tiny marks that unlock another 25 syllables with almost no extra effort. The dakuten (゛, two little dashes) and the handakuten (゜, a small circle) sit in the top-right corner of certain kana and change the sound they produce. Learn the pattern once and you can read half of all everyday Japanese words that your base chart was missing.

What the Two Marks Do

Hiragana was designed around unvoiced consonants — the k, s, t, and h series. Japanese also uses voiced versions of those consonants (g, z, d, b) and the aspirated p sound, but rather than inventing new letters, the writing system reuses the same kana with a small mark on top. One mark, one sound change. The system is elegant: once you know the base kana, you know the voiced version at a glance.

Dakuten: The ゛Mark

Dakuten attach to four of the ten base rows and shift the consonant from unvoiced to voiced. Here are the four mappings:

Twenty new syllables from four marks. The relationship is phonetic: g is just k with your vocal cords on, z is s with voicing, d is t with voicing, and b is p with voicing (we'll get to why h-row makes b in a moment).

Why ぢ and づ Sound Like じ and ず

Look at the t-row: ち is pronounced chi and つ is pronounced tsu. When you add dakuten, they should become something like ji and du. But in modern standard Japanese, ぢ sounds identical to じ and づ sounds identical to ず — both say ji and zu.

So why have four kana for only two sounds? Spelling preserves history. ぢ and づ only appear in a small number of specific words — mostly compounds where the second half originally started with ち or つ. The dictionary-standard spellings are:

• 鼻血 (hana-ji, "nosebleed") — spelled はなぢ because it is 鼻 (nose) + 血 (chi, "blood").
• 続く (tsuzuku, "to continue") — spelled つづく because the second syllable is a repeat of the first.
• 三日月 (mikazuki, "crescent moon") — spelled みかづき because it contains 月 (tsuki, "moon").

For every other word that sounds like ji or zu, use じ and ず. The ぢ/づ cases are the exceptions, not the default — rely on your dictionary when you meet them.

Handakuten: The ゜Mark

Handakuten only attach to one row — the h-row — and shift it to a p sound. One mapping to memorize:

Only five new kana from this mark, but they are useful — p-sounds appear in common words like ぱん (bread), ぴかぴか (sparkling), and ぽつぽつ (drizzling).

The h-row also takes dakuten (゛) to give b-sounds — ば び ぶ べ ぼ. So the h-row is special: it is the only row that uses both marks, giving three variants per kana (は → ば → ぱ). The reason comes from history. Centuries ago, the h-row was actually pronounced closer to a p; both b and p are its natural voiced and aspirated cousins.

Rendaku — Why Words Sometimes "Grow a Dakuten"

Dakuten also appear in a pattern called rendaku (連濁, "sequential voicing"). When two words combine into a compound, the first consonant of the second word often becomes voiced. You will see this constantly in everyday vocabulary:

Rendaku isn't totally predictable — not every compound triggers it, and there are rule-of-thumb exceptions (like "Lyman's Law," which blocks rendaku when the second word already contains a voiced consonant). But as a listener and reader, recognizing rendaku means you will not get confused when a word you know shows up with a dakuten you did not expect.

How Katakana Uses the Same Marks

Katakana follows the identical pattern: the same four rows take dakuten (カ → ガ, サ → ザ, タ → ダ, ハ → バ), and only the h-row takes handakuten (ハ → パ). Nothing to re-learn — the marks mean the same thing on both scripts.

Katakana does have one bonus voicing kana you won't see in hiragana: ヴ (vu), katakana ウ with dakuten. It is used in loanwords with a V sound, like ヴァイオリン (violin). You can safely ignore it as a beginner — modern Japanese usually just writes バ instead.

Writing the Marks by Hand

Both marks sit in the top-right corner of the kana they modify. Keep them small — about one-sixth of the kana's size — and position them clearly outside the character's main body. Common handwriting mistakes:

• Writing dakuten as a colon (:) — the two strokes should be short diagonals, not a vertical pair of dots.
• Making the handakuten too big — a huge circle makes ぱ look like it has a の next to it.
• Floating the marks too far away — they should hug the character, not drift into the next column.

How to Practice

1. Learn the base rows first. Dakuten versions borrow their shape — if you can write か, you can write が immediately. Do not try to study them as separate letters.
2. Build a 10-word daily list with voiced kana: がっこう, でんわ, ばなな, ぴあの. Writing the whole word reinforces the mark placement.
3. Say the base kana first, then add the voicing. ka → ga, sa → za — this trains your mouth to feel the connection.
4. Spot rendaku in compounds you already know. てがみ, はなび, あおぞら. Noticing them locks in the pattern faster than memorizing the rule.

Dakuten and handakuten are the smallest marks in Japanese and the biggest multipliers on your reading ability. Fifteen seconds of pattern-learning gives you access to 25 more syllables — and almost half of all common Japanese words contain at least one voicing mark somewhere.