み and ミ

Pronunciation

“MI” sound in "Meat".

み Memorization Story

The hiragana み looks like a 2 and 1 combined, or ADDED. 2+1

ミ Memorization Story

2+1 = ミ... Which has 3 lines, and incidentally looks almost the same as the KANJI for 3, and gives us BOTH the hiragana み and the katakana. Also, when counting objects, the number 3 is 三つ in Japanese. We’ll learn about that tiny つ there later.

Writing

 
 

Make sure to start the first stroke of the hiragana み with a short horizontal line on top. You don’t need to make the loop at the bottom very big. It’s much less pronounced than it is in computer fonts usually. The final stroke should be slightly curved in to the left, and starts well below the START of the first stroke.

All 3 strokes in katakana ミ should be angled downwards a bit. 

Font Examples

み  ミ

み  ミ

み  ミ

み  ミ

み  ミ

Typing

Hiragana み
Type the letters “mi”.

Katakana ミ
Type “mi” and press the F7 key, or press spacebar until the katakana appears. 

Word(s)

うみ

sea, ocean

かみ

a god, a kami (Japanese folk god)

なみ

a wave

ミニスカート

mini-skirt

 

Historical Form

Hiragana
美→み

HISTORICAL VERSION

Katakana
三→ミ

PART BORROWED

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