He (kana)


He is one of the Japanese kana, which represents one mora. The sound is the only sound that is written almost identically in hiragana and katakana and therefore confusable according to the Unicode Standard. In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, ヘ can be written as small ㇸ to represent a final after an sound.
It is usually pronounced with the aspirate before its vowel. It is also often used as a grammatical particle indicating direction, which makes only the vowel sound ; when used this way, it is sometimes romanised as 'e.
Though the two forms へ and ヘ are usually rendered with a small difference between them, in order to match better with the appearance of other hiragana or katakana characters, they can often be rendered identically. A reader is not expected to distinguish one from the other without contextual clues.
FormsRōmajiHiraganaKatakanaExample words
Normal h-
he
  • へび hebi 蛇 snake
  • へる heru 減る abate/decrease
  • へんか henka 変化 change/modification
  • へい heiwall
  • へいあん heian 平安 tranquility
Normal h-hei
hee
へい, へぃ
へえ, へぇ
へー
ヘイ, ヘィ
ヘエ, ヘェ
ヘー

  • へび hebi 蛇 snake
  • へる heru 減る abate/decrease
  • へんか henka 変化 change/modification
  • へい hei 塀 wall
  • へいあん heian 平安 tranquility
Addition dakuten b-be
  • かべ kabe 壁 wall
  • べんきょう benkyō 勉強 studying
  • ベッド beddo bed
  • なんべい nanbei 南米 South America
Addition dakuten b-bei
bee
べい, べぃ
べえ, べぇ
べー
ベイ, ベィ
ベエ, ベェ
ベー

  • かべ kabe 壁 wall
  • べんきょう benkyō 勉強 studying
  • ベッド beddo bed
  • なんべい nanbei 南米 South America
Addition handakuten p-pe
  • いっぺん ippen 一辺 on a side
  • ペルー perū Peru
Addition handakuten p-pei
pee
ぺい, ぺぃ
ぺえ, ぺぇ
ぺー
ペイ, ペィ
ペエ, ペェ
ペー

  • いっぺん ippen 一辺 on a side
  • ペルー perū Peru

Stroke order

The stroke order is similar between hiragana and katakana.

Other communicative representations