Hiragana · r row
れ (re): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
れ is the hiragana for re, the e sound of the r row. It is written with 2 strokes. Its katakana twin is レ (re).
- Romaji
- re
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play re
How to write れ, 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 re
Tip: tapped 're' — soft
れ in a word
The course introduces れ with これ (this).
The r row
The r row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so れ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
れ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where れ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
それで わかった。
That's when I understood. from Two o'clock at the station
「これ、ください。」
"This one, please." from At the shop
Built from れ
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 れ 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.