I in hiragana: い

The syllable ‘I’ in hiragana is written い.

い ‘I’ hiragana stroke order

い has two strokes:

• A slightly sloping downwards stroke that hooks up to the right.
• A second slightly sloping downwards stroke.

い ‘I’ hiragana mnemonic

See also: Making mnemonics

This images should help you to remember how to write ‘I’ in hiragana by associating the sound ee with the shape of い. Remember that the English words used here are not a pronunciation guide. They help you to remember how to write い, not how to say it.

To learn pronunciation you need to get a lot of listening and speaking practice done. Online services like JapanesePod 101 can help with that.

い is two *ee*ls.

い ‘I’ hiragana origins

い is derived from the kanji 以 (i) . This is pronounced yǐ in Mandarin Chinese (hanzi) and i in Korean (hanja).

Useful links

• Kana Pict-o-Graphix: Mnemonics for Japanese Hiragana and Katakana
• Let’s Learn Hiragana: First Book of Japanese Writing
• Hiragana mnemonics on asahi-net.or.jp
• Hiragana mnemonics on japanese.gatech.edu
• Japanese Hiragana - Omniglot