"Each kana is either a vowel such as a; a consonant followed by a vowel such as ka; or n, a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng, or like the nasal vowels of French.Hiragana is used to write native words for which there are no kanji.Hiragana is also used to give the pronunciation of kanji in a reading aid called furigana." . . . .