Katakana · vowel row
ア (a): katakana stroke order and pronunciation
ア is the katakana for a, the first of the five vowels. It is written with 2 strokes. Its hiragana twin is あ (a).
- Romaji
- a
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play a
How to write ア, 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 a
Tip: like 'a' in 'father'
In words
The course does not attach an example word to ア when it introduces it; you will meet it in the lessons that follow.
The five vowels
Every other kana is one of these five vowels with a consonant in front, so ア is the sound you hear at the end of the whole a column. Read the five together until each is automatic:
ア in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where ア turns up in running text rather than on its own.
アメリカは ゆきです。
It's snowing in America. from At the airport
「すみません！アメリカは ゆきでした。」
"Sorry! It was snowing in America." from At the airport
Built from ア
The same sound in hiragana
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 ア with tracing practice, a listening drill and spaced review, then uses it in real words within the same lesson.
Keep going
- ChartHiragana chartAll 46 basic hiragana plus dakuten and yōon combinations, each with romaji, stroke-order diagram, a pronunciation tip 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.