Hiragana · t row
ち (chi): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
ち is the hiragana for chi, the i sound of the t row. It is written with 2 strokes. Its katakana twin is チ (chi).
- Romaji
- chi
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play chi
How to write ち, stroke by stroke
Each frame adds one stroke. The number sits where the stroke starts; strokes run left to right and top to bottom.
- stroke 1
- stroke 2
How to say chi
Tip: like 'chee' in 'cheese'
Pronounced 'chi', not 'ki'.
ち in a word
The course introduces ち with くち (mouth).
The t row
The t row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so ち differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with ち
6 words from the beginner word lists use ち. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- いち一ichioneNumbers
- しち七shichisevenNumbers
- はち八hachieightNumbers
- ちち父chichi(my) fatherFamily words
- おちゃお茶ochagreen teaFood and drink vocabulary
- はたち二十歳hatachi20 years oldFamily words
ち in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where ち turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「にちようび？」
"Sunday?" from The day off
あしたは にちようびだ。
Tomorrow is Sunday. from Two o'clock at the station
Rules that involve ち
Dakuten — the voicing mark
Two small strokes (゛) on a kana voice it: the shape stays the same but your vocal cords buzz. You'll meet 5 of these in the k→g row.
- か → がvoiced k becomes g
- き → ぎvoiced k becomes g
Yōon — small kana combinations
A small や, ゆ, or ょ after an i-row kana blends them into one mora: one sound, two glyphs. The small kana never separates — it sticks to its neighbor.
- き + ゃ = きゃone blended sound
- き + ょ = きょone blended sound
Built from ち
Stroke-order data from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
Practice this in Open Lingo
The Open Lingo Japanese course teaches ち with tracing practice, a listening drill and spaced review, then uses it in real words within the same lesson.
Keep going
- ChartKatakana chartAll 46 basic katakana plus voiced and yōon combinations, with romaji, stroke-order diagrams, example loanwords and audio.
- Word listGreetings and polite phrasesEssential Japanese greetings and polite phrases for beginners, with hiragana, romaji, meaning and audio, taken from the Open Lingo course.
- Word listNumbersJapanese numbers for beginners: Sino-Japanese いち, に, さん, the native ひとつ, ふたつ counting set, and hundreds, thousands and 万, with audio.
- ToolNumbers 1 to 100 and converterJapanese numbers 0 to 100 in kana, kanji and romaji, a converter up to 999,999, and the rules for 4, 7, 9, sound-changing hundreds and 万.