Hiragana · m row
み (mi): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
み is the hiragana for mi, the i sound of the m row. It is written with 2 strokes. Its katakana twin is ミ (mi).
- Romaji
- mi
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play mi
How to write み, 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 mi
Tip: like 'mee' in 'meet'
In words
The course does not attach an example word to み when it introduces it; you will meet it in the lessons that follow.
The m row
The m row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so み differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with み
5 words from the beginner word lists use み. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- みず水mizuwaterFood and drink vocabulary
- みっつ三つmittsuthreeNumbers
- のみもの飲み物nomimonoa drinkFood and drink vocabulary
- のみますnomimasudrinkFood and drink vocabulary
- すみませんsumimasenExcuse meGreetings and polite phrases
み in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where み turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「すみません。」
"Excuse me." from At the shop
「うみは きれいだから。」
"The sea is beautiful, trust me." from The trip I didn't want
Rules that involve み
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 み
Combinations (yōon) with small ゃ ゅ ょ
- みゃmya
- みゅmyu
- みょmyo
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 み 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.