Katakana · s row
シ (shi): katakana stroke order and pronunciation
シ is the katakana for shi, the i sound of the s row. It is written with 3 strokes. Its hiragana twin is し (shi).
- Romaji
- shi
- Strokes
- 3
- Listen
- Play shi
How to write シ, 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 shi
Tip: like 'she'
Three strokes, and the long one sweeps UP from the bottom-left. Remember that — its twin ツ does the opposite.
シ in a word
The course introduces シ with ジュース (juice).
The s row
The s row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so シ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
シ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where シ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
シャワーの じかんは ない。ぼくは かおを あらう。
There's no time for a shower. I wash my face. from The day off
Built from シ
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 シ 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.