Learn Japanese by reading

Tsukigo is a free app for learning Japanese by reading. You read short stories at your level, hear them read aloud, and tap any word you don't know. Every kanji has its reading above it, so one unfamiliar character never locks you out of a story.

What you read

Around a thousand Japanese stories: conversations between two people, everyday scenes, culture and ideas, jokes, and the classics — the folk tales every Japanese child knows, the songs they sing at school, Niimi Nankichi, Ogawa Mimei, and two of Akutagawa's stories.

Every story is recorded, and the text lights up word by word as the audio plays. Here is one of them, in full.

Beginner

Tap a word for its meaning.

秋あきが来くる

公こう園えんのベンチbenchに座すわって、空そらを見みます。風かぜが冷つめたくなりました。

もう秋あきが来きましたから、木きの葉はleavesが赤あかくなります。子こ供どものとき、私わたしはここでよく遊あそびました。

あれから、たくさんの年としが過すぎてpassed、私わたしは大人おとなになりました。でも、秋あきの風かぜだけは、昔むかしold daysと同おなじだと知しりました。

Read it in the app

The readings above the kanji and the meanings under the words show only where you need them: Tsukigo leaves them off words you already know and keeps them on the ones you're still learning. You can show them on every word instead, or turn either one off.

You don't have to choose a level. After a few stories, Tsukigo knows which words you've met, and the stories it suggests next are built mostly from those.

Practicing words

You can save any word you tap, and saved words get their own list under Vocabulary. To go over them outside the stories, practice takes you through them one at a time.

If you are new to Japanese

The starter course assumes nothing at all. It begins with hiragana and katakana, then teaches basic vocabulary through purpose-built exercises.

パン
猫
ねこ
読む
よむ
走る
はしる
三つ
みっつ
下
した

猫は　どこ？

猫は　椅子の　前に　いる。

Where is the cat? The cat is in front of the chair.

After that come scenes, then short stories you can read with what the course has taught you.

Kanji arrive inside words you already know how to say, with their readings above them.

Going further