Katakana · h row
ヒ (hi): katakana stroke order and pronunciation
ヒ is the katakana for hi, the i sound of the h row. It is written with 2 strokes. Its hiragana twin is ひ (hi).
- Romaji
- hi
- Strokes
- 2
- Listen
- Play hi
How to write ヒ, 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 hi
Tip: like 'hee' in 'heel'
Two strokes, one propping the other up.
ヒ in a word
The course introduces ヒ with コーヒー (coffee).
The h row
The h row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so ヒ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with ヒ
One word from the beginner word lists use ヒ. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- コーヒーkoohiicoffeeFood and drink vocabulary
Built from ヒ
With dakuten and handakuten
- ビbi
- ピpi
Combinations (yōon) with small ャ ュ ョ
- ヒャhya
- ヒュhyu
- ヒョhyo
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 ヒ 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.