Hiragana · s row
そ (so): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
そ is the hiragana for so, the o sound of the s row. It is written with one stroke. Its katakana twin is ソ (so).
- Romaji
- so
- Strokes
- 1
- Listen
- Play so
How to say so
Tip: like 'so' in 'sole'
そ in a word
The course introduces そ with そら (sky).
The s row
The s row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so そ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with そ
One word from the beginner word lists use そ. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- そうsouthat's rightGreetings and polite phrases
そ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where そ 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
そこに、トムが きます！
Then Tom comes out! from At the airport
Rules that involve そ
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
Built from そ
With dakuten
- ぞzo
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 そ 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.