No (kana)
No are Japanese kana, both representing one mora. In the gojūon system of ordering of Japanese morae, it occupies the 25th position, between ね and は. It occupies the 26th position in the iroha ordering. Both represent the sound. The katakana form is written similar to the Kangxi radical, radical 4.
| Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana | Katakana |
| Normal n- | no | の | ノ |
| Normal n- | nou noo nō | のう, のぅ のお, のぉ のー | ノウ, ノゥ ノオ, ノォ ノー |
Stroke order
To write の, begin slightly above the center, stroke downward diagonally, then round upward and continue curve around, leaving a small gap at the bottom.To write ノ, simply do a swooping curve from top-right to bottom left.
Other communicative representations
- Full Braille representation
- Computer encodings
History
The leftmost, predominantly vertical segment of the man'yōgana was used to create the katakana ノ.When the kanji 乃 is written in the highly cursive, flowing grass script style, it begins to resemble the hiragana の.
Hentaigana and gyaru-moji variant kana forms of no can also be found.
Usage
の is a dental nasal consonant, articulated on the upper teeth, combined with a close-mid back rounded vowel to form one mora.In the Japanese language, as well as forming words, の may be a particle showing possession. For example, the phrase "わたしのでんわ" watashi no denwa means "my telephone".