っ

See also つ

Japanese

Character	っ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL TU
Codepoint	U+3063

Pronunciation

If preceding a consonant, results in the following consonant being geminate; an English example is cattail – see Gemination: English for further discussion.

If ending a word, results in the word ending in a glottal stop.

In no case is it pronounced like the full-size つ (tsu).

Etymology

Small form of the hiragana character つ (tsu).

Combining form

っ

1. The sokuon: a small form of つ (tsu). In romanization, this is represented by doubling the following consonant. The equivalent in katakana is ッ.

   いっぱい — ippai

   もっと — motto

   すっぱい — suppai

   おっぱい — oppai

2. A glottal stop or “choked sound”.

   あっ！

   Ah!

See also

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ

Usage notes

Primarily used as the sokuon (for gemination), which is a common sound. Used as a glottal stop at the end of interjections, primarily expressions of surprise or effort.