Ha (kana)

Ha (hiragana: は, katakana: ハ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. Both represent . They are also used as a grammatical particle (in such cases, they denote , including in the greeting "kon'nichiwa") and serve as the topic marker of the sentence. は originates from 波 and ハ from 八.

In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, the katakana ハ can be written as small ㇵ to represent a final h sound after an a sound (アㇵ ah). This, along with other extended katakana, was developed by Japanese linguists to represent sounds in Ainu not present in standard Japanese katakana.

When used as a particle, は is pronounced as わ [wa]. は is also pronounced as わ in some words (e.g. もののあはれ pronounced as mono no aware).

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal h- (は行 ha-gyō)	ha	は	ハ
	haa hā	はあ, はぁ はー	ハア, ハァ ハー
Addition dakuten b- (ば行 ba-gyō)	ba	ば	バ
	baa bā	ばあ, ばぁ ばー	バア, バァ バー
Addition handakuten p- (ぱ行 pa-gyō)	pa	ぱ	パ
	paa pā	ぱあ, ぱぁ ぱー	パア, パァ パー

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing は Stroke order in writing は

Stroke order in writing ハ Stroke order in writing ハ

Stroke order in writing は

Stroke order in writing は

The Hiragana は is made with three strokes:

1. A vertical line on the left side with a small curve.
2. A horizontal stroke near the center.
3. A vertical stroke on the right at the center of the second stroke followed by a loop near the end.

Stroke order in writing ハ

Stroke order in writing ハ

The Katakana ハ is made with two strokes:

1. A straight stroke from the top pointing towards the bottom left.
2. Another straight stroke going the opposite way, i.e. from the top to the bottom right

The hiragana は is read as "wa" when it represents a particle.

Other communicative representations

• Full Braille representation

は / ハ in Japanese Braille
は / ハ ha	ば / バ ba	ぱ / パ pa	はあ / ハー hā	ばあ / バー bā	ぱあ / パー pā
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Other kana based on Braille は
ひゃ / ヒャ hya	びゃ / ビャ bya	ぴゃ / ピャ pya	ひゃあ / ヒャー hyā	びゃあ / ビャー byā	ぴゃあ / ピャー pyā
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• Computer encodings

See also

• Japanese grammar