を and ヲ
Pronunciation
“O” sound in “Oh”.
They are written in romaji as “Wo”. This means that when people EMPHASIZE that they mean THIS sound, they will sometimes pronounce it like:
“WO” sound in “Whoa”.
But this is a bit more rare. There are also some cases where it might sound more like "WO' after words where it is easier to say "wo" than "o" after.
を Memorization Story
The hiragana を looks like a small person stomping on a giant’s big toe.
を Continued...
Woe is he, because this giant WOn’t let him get away with that.
ヲ Memorization Story
Woe is me for having to teach you this katakana. Fortunately, the chances of you seeing this ヲ in the wild are low. This is our trusty half BOWL, except that this one has been dropped. OH NO! There is a crack. You also spilled all the OATmeal that was in it.
Writing
The hiragana を can feel a little odd to write at first. The beginning of the 2nd stroke should be pulled diagonally to the left, but the end of the stroke can be cut sharply up, and made circular OR be drawn straight down into the next stroke, depending on what feels most comfortable to you. The final stroke should be basically identical to the second stroke in と, and should cut THROUGH the first the second stroke.
Font Examples
を ヲ
を ヲ
を ヲ
を ヲ
を ヲ
Typing
Hiragana を
Type the letters “wo”.
Katakana ヲ
Type “wo” and press the F7 key, or press spacebar until the katakana appears.
Word(s)
を Particle
in modern Japanese, you will ONLY see the hiragana を used as the object marker particle. It’ll mark the OBJECT of an action in a Japanese sentence.
The katakana ヲ is extremely rare. Usually, it only shows up in ALTERNATE colloquial versions of words that have the katakana オ in them.
One example is:
オタク - otaku, geek, enthusiast
Which you MAY see spelled as ヲタクsometimes online. Emphasis on MAY…
Historical Form
Hiragana
遠→を
HISTORICAL VERSION
Katakana
乎→ヲ
PART BORROWED
