Hiragana · s row
し (shi): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
し is the hiragana for shi, the i sound of the s row. It is written with one stroke. Its katakana twin is シ (shi).
- Romaji
- shi
- Strokes
- 1
- Listen
- Play shi
How to say shi
Tip: like 'she' in 'sheet'
Pronounced 'shi', not 'si'.
し in a word
The course introduces し with うし (cow).
The s row
The s row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so し differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with し
6 words from the beginner word lists use し. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- し四shifourNumbers
- しち七shichisevenNumbers
- すし寿司sushiSushiFood and drink vocabulary
- しょくじshokujimealFood and drink vocabulary
- おいしいoishiideliciousFood and drink vocabulary
- はじめましてhajimemashiteNice to meet youGreetings and polite phrases
し in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where し turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「わたしのだ！」
"It's mine!" from The missing phone
「……おいしい！」
"…That's good!" from The pudding
Rules that involve し
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
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 し
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 し 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.