Hiragana has one more part to further complicate it, but still not adding any more new characters. What we’ll be talking about today is described in several different ways. I was taught Contracted sounds, but it can be called double consonant hiragana, or just double hiragana. Take the 1st entry in the chart below- きゃ (kya. ) You’ll notice that the や (ya) is smaller than the き (ki) this is what tells the reader that it’s a contracted sound.

きゃ Kya
きや Kiya
^ at first glance, they appear to be the same, but there are different meanings & pronunciations.

As long as you know the rest of the hiragana, there’s no need to memorize this chart straight.