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Hi everyone, I have a really noob question to ask of you about how to write the hiragana symbol for ki.
I was looking for some practice writing sheets online to show me the stroke order for individual kana and I came across multiple websites, actually quite a few, that show the way to write ki is slightly different from the way it’s pictured in the hiragana chart. For example:
http://www.umich.edu/~umichjlp/Hiraganapro/ki.html
http://yosida.com/en/hiragana.html (click on the kana for ki)
I don’t understand why there’s a difference. I also don’t know if there’s any other kana that are like this where the chart shows one way but when written out looks another (I only know the first 10 so far). Could someone please explain it to me?
You’ll also see this with: http://www.umich.edu/~umichjlp/Hiraganapro/sa.html
Its how its traditionally meant to be written and how most people don’t really bother to write any more. Don’t sweat it and just do the connected version :P
Ah ok, thank you very much Sheepy, I’ll just stick to writing it how it looks in the Hiragana chart :)
In the beginning, looking at the print-based writing is fine for keeping you from the brink of information overload– eventually though you should look at handwriting or at least typefaces which describe the strokes. You’ll gain a much better understanding of what the characters are and how to compose them with relatively little effort (basically, you’ll write faster and read more, faster). It’s like touch typing vs. one or two finger pecking, but with no practice required (or at least, no more than you already need to be copying the other font).
Edit: Whoops– clicked one of your links and thought another tab I had open (jisho) was the other, so I assumed you were looking at something else. Left behind for posterity, I guess? ;) As for the gap, you can tell that it’s really only the infinite thinning of the stroke. It varies from person to person (though I know people who get a twitch when they see it without a gap), but remember it next time you’re looking at any calligraphy.
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This reply was modified 13 years ago by
Ian Smith.
Yes, thank you Ian, I was thinking it might be a print vs. hand-written difference, but I couldn’t find a source to confirm.
I decided that while I’m learning the Kana (Hiragana atm) I might as well learn how to write them as well, which means learning the order of the strokes, so that’s why I asked. Thank you very much for your response :)
さ, り, ふ, な, や and ら also have slight differences between printed and handwritten styles. I’ve been assured by my native-speaking lecturers that people still write in the handwritten style when writing by hand. Realkana.com lets you practice reading both styles. I’ve also seen し written slightly differently, but I’m not entirely certain.
Yeah there are actually some cool little ways to write different kana. HOWEVER in some areas its not normal and some it is.
For example, this style, which I now use exclusively because its cute and faster lol, but some teachers don’t like it and some do.
You don’t think that… rather large handakuten makes it look like the number 30, do you? =P
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This reply was modified 13 years ago by
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