Hiragana · h row
へ (he): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
へ is the hiragana for he, the e sound of the h row. It is written with one stroke. Its katakana twin is ヘ (he).
- Romaji
- he
- Strokes
- 1
- Listen
- Play he
How to say he
Tip: like 'he' in 'help'
In words
The course does not attach an example word to へ when it introduces it; you will meet it in the lessons that follow.
The h row
The h row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so へ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
へ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where へ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「りょこうは たいへんだ。」
"Trips are a hassle." from The trip I didn't want
ぼくは りょこうが すきじゃない。りょこうは たいへんだ。
I don't like travelling. Trips are a hassle. from The trip I didn't want
Rules that involve へ
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
Handakuten — the circle mark
A small circle (゜) on h-kana flips it to a p-sound — same shape, different breath. Only h-kana take the circle; you'll meet 5 of them in this row.
- は → ぱh-kana with ゜ becomes p
- ほ → ぽh-kana with ゜ becomes p
Built from へ
With dakuten and handakuten
- べbe
- ぺpe
The same sound in katakana
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 へ 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.