Blog
More
Learn Hiragana and Katakana GIFT Memberships

や and ヤ

Pronunciation

“YA” sound in "Yakuza". Which makes sense, since that is a Japanese word.

や Memorization Story

The Hiragana for や is a Yakuza gang member with his arm around a terrified bystander trying to convince him to come into his Sushi shop, which is a front for Loan Sharking. 

ヤ Memorization Story

The katakana ヤ is what happens when you say NO to the Yakuza. 

That’s… him handing over his business card.

Writing

 
 

The stroke order for the hiragana や throws a lot of people off. We start with the sideways hook, then do the DOT on top, which hooks back towards the 3rd and final stroke, which cuts diagonally to the right a bit. It looks nicest if you curve it slightly to the right.

The final stroke of the katakana on the other hand should be diagonal just like the hiragana, but NOT curved. Make it nice and straight.

Font Examples

や　　ヤ

や　　ヤ

や　　ヤ

や　　ヤ

や　　ヤ

Typing

Hiragana や
Type the letters “ya”.

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

Word(s)

やあ

Hello there! Yo!

いや

unwilling, dislike

ヤクザ*

yakuza 

 

Extending the あ vowel sound with hiragana is super easy. We just use あ, like here in the word やあ

 

*We haven’t actually talked about these 2 little dots after the サ here, but just so you know, it makes this characterサ, sound like "Za". We’ll talk more about that later in the video. But for this word it makes it ヤクザ.

 

Historical Form

Hiragana
也→や

HISTORICAL VERSION

Katakana
也→ヤ

PART BORROWED

← Back to も・モ
Continue to ゆ・ユ →
Jump to Any Lesson
ToKini Kana Introduction Page あ・ア い・イ う・ウ え・エ お・オ Consonant Vowel Combinations か・カ き・キ く・ク け・ケ こ・コ Kana Reading Practice 1 さ・サ し・シ す・ス せ・セ そ・ソ た・タ ち・チ つ・ツ て・テ と・ト Kana Reading Practice 2 な・ナ に・ニ ぬ・ヌ ね・ネ の・ノ は・ハ ひ・ヒ ふ・フ へ・ヘ ほ・ホ Kana Reading Practice 3 ま・マ み・ミ む・ム め・メ も・モ や・ヤ ゆ・ユ よ・ヨ Kana Reading Practice 4 ら・ラ り・リ る・ル れ・レ ろ・ロ わ・ワ を・ヲ ん・ン Kana Reading Practice 5 Dakuten, Han-Dakuten, and Sokuon Kana Reading Practice 6 Kana Combinations Kana Reading Practice 7 Special Katakana Combinations The End Kana Worksheets