は

は U+306F, は HIRAGANA LETTER HA ← の [U+306E] Hiragana ば → [U+3070]

See also: ほ, ば, ぱ, and Appendix:Variations of "pa"

Japanese

Stroke order

Etymology 1

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 波 in the cursive sōsho style.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ha̠]

Syllable

は (romaji ha)

1. The hiragana syllable は (ha). Its equivalent in katakana is ハ (ha). It is the twenty-sixth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is は行あ段 (ha-gyō a-dan, “row ha, section a”).

Derived terms

• ば (ba)
• ぱ (pa)

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

Etymology 2

/pa/ → /ɸa/ → /wa/. The spelling was preserved as は in the script reform rather than changed to わ (wa) as may be expected.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɰᵝa̠]

Particle

は (rōmaji wa)

1. a particle that acts as a topic marker

   これは犬 (いぬ)です。

   Kore wa inu desu.

   This [the topic, about which we are speaking] is a dog.

Usage notes

Note that English has no direct counterpart. For illustrative purposes, it may be translated as "as for" or a similar phrase. For example, "As for this, it is a dog". This often does not produce very natural English, however.

Derived terms

• では (de wa)

See also

• は as a Japanese topic marker
• が (ga): the subject marker

Noun

は (rōmaji ha)

1. 歯: tooth
2. 刃: sword edge
3. 葉: leaf

Kanji reading

は (romaji ha)

Kun-reading of:

• 羽: feather
• 端: edge