Hiragana · t row
た (ta): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
た is the hiragana for ta, the a sound of the t row. It is written with 4 strokes. Its katakana twin is タ (ta).
- Romaji
- ta
- Strokes
- 4
- Listen
- Play ta
How to write た, 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
- stroke 3
- stroke 4
How to say ta
Tip: like 'ta' in 'taco'
た in a word
The course introduces た with うた (song).
The t row
The t row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so た differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with た
6 words from the beginner word lists use た. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- ふたつ二つfutatsutwoNumbers
- たまご卵tamagoeggFood and drink vocabulary
- たべる食べるtaberuto eatFood and drink vocabulary
- ふたり二人futaritwo peopleFamily words
- はたち二十歳hatachi20 years oldFamily words
- たべますtabemasueatFood and drink vocabulary
た in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where た turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「わたしのだ！」
"It's mine!" from The missing phone
それで わかった。
That's when I understood. from Two o'clock at the station
Rules that involve た
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 た
With dakuten
- だda
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 た 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.