お and オ
Pronunciation
“O” in "Oh no!".
お Memorization Story
You may notice that お looks a LOT like the FIRST character we learned: あ
But there are a few small differences. For one, we have that little DOT over on the top right. For future hiragana, when there is a floating dot like this, we’ll usually make it some kind of speech bubble in the story. So store that away in the back of your mind for now.
We’ll notice the sword from earlier, but instead of stopping at the end, and then starting the loop stroke from up top, it loops right around from the bottom of the blade. This circular portion is the mouth of a sword swallower, who has cut the bottom portion of his lip while trying to swallow the sword… He shouts “Oh no!” and the crowd shouts “ooh no!” as they see him do it.
エ Memorization Story
The katakana オ is the image of an OLYMPIC ice skater. The crowd ooo’s and oooh’s at her majestic form as she skates around the O shaped Olympic ice skating rink.
Writing
It’s important to remember here that the SECOND stroke continues DIRECTLY into the looping portion of お, as opposed to the one in あ. Cutting sharply to the left at that point, instead of making it a completely circular loop, can help you balance this kanji nicely.
Font Examples
お オ
お オ
お オ
お オ
お オ
Typing
Hiragana お
Type the letter “o”.
Katakana オ
Type "o" and press the F7 key, or press spacebar until the katakana appears.
Word(s)
おい！
hey!
あお
blue, green
Click the navigation buttons below to see these expressions and words in context!
Historical Form
Hiragana
於→お
HISTORICAL VERSION
Katakana
於→オ
PART BORROWED
