Hiragana · h row
ひ (hi): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
ひ is the hiragana for hi, the i sound of the h row. It is written with one stroke. Its katakana twin is ヒ (hi).
- Romaji
- hi
- Strokes
- 1
- Listen
- Play hi
How to say hi
Tip: like 'hee' in 'heat'
ひ in a word
The course introduces ひ with ひと (person).
The h row
The h row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so ひ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with ひ
3 words from the beginner word lists use ひ. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- ひとつ一つhitotsuoneNumbers
- ひゃく百hyakuhundredNumbers
- ひとり一人hitorione personFamily words
ひ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where ひ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「ひゃくえんです。」
"It's 100 yen." from At the shop
「ごひゃくえんです。」
"It's 500 yen." from At the shop
Rules that involve ひ
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
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 ひ
With dakuten and handakuten
- びbi
- ぴpi
Combinations (yōon) with small ゃ ゅ ょ
- ひゃhya
- ひゅhyu
- ひょhyo
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 ひ 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.