Katakana · m row
ミ (mi): katakana stroke order and pronunciation
ミ is the katakana for mi, the i sound of the m row. It is written with 3 strokes. Its hiragana twin is み (mi).
- Romaji
- mi
- Strokes
- 3
- Listen
- Play mi
How to write ミ, 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
How to say mi
Tip: like 'mee' in 'meet'
Three short strokes — 'mi', think three.
ミ in a word
The course introduces ミ with ミルク (milk).
The m row
The m row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so ミ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
ミ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where ミ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
ユミが いう。
Yumi says, from The day off
ユミが いう。
Yumi says, from The trip I didn't want
Built from ミ
Combinations (yōon) with small ャ ュ ョ
- ミャmya
- ミュmyu
- ミョmyo
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 ミ 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.