Hiragana · r row
り (ri): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
り is the hiragana for ri, the i sound of the r row. It is written with 2 strokes. Its katakana twin is リ (ri).
- Romaji
- ri
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play ri
How to write り, 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 ri
Tip: like a tapped 'ri' — soft
り in a word
The course introduces り with りす (squirrel).
The r row
The r row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so り differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with り
6 words from the beginner word lists use り. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- ひとり一人hitorione personFamily words
- ふたり二人futaritwo peopleFamily words
- とりにくとり肉torinikuchickenFood and drink vocabulary
- ありがとうarigatouthanksGreetings and polite phrases
- わかりましたwakarimashitaI understand / got itGreetings and polite phrases
- ありがとうございますarigatou gozaimasuThank youGreetings and polite phrases
り in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where り turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「ありがとうございます。」
"Thank you." from At the shop
「りょこうは たいへんだ。」
"Trips are a hassle." from The trip I didn't want
Rules that involve り
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 り
Combinations (yōon) with small ゃ ゅ ょ
- りゃrya
- りゅryu
- りょryo
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 り 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.