be / べ
The fourth of the B row — へ with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'be'. Anchors the words for study (勉強) and boxed lunch (弁当).
Pronunciation
The character べ represents the syllable 'be', a soft 'b' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. It is へ with the dakuten that voices 'h' to 'b'.
べ is へ (he) plus the dakuten ゛. It's three strokes total — the simplest B-row character to write. べ anchors 勉強 (benkyou, "study / practice"), 弁当 (bentou, "boxed lunch"), 別 (betsu, "different / separate"), 部屋 (heya, "room" — uses へ, but 部 alone reads as be in some compounds). Word-initial べ is /be/. Note: when the H-row base へ is used as a direction particle, it's pronounced e, but with dakuten it always becomes /be/.
How to write べ
Trace べ on the canvas at the top of the page. Animated arrows show each stroke's direction; trace along them and the stroke fills in. Each numbered step below explains what that stroke does.
Write へ exactly: a single angular stroke shaped like a low chevron or shallow caret. Start at the lower left, sweep up to a peak in the upper middle, then sweep back down to the lower right. The angle is wide and flat, almost a straight line with a single rise in the middle.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 2 and 3 are the two ticks.
Origin
Hiragana べ shares its base shape with へ, which evolved from the kanji 部 (he, "section / department" — read also as be in compounds). The kanji's right radical compressed into the single angular stroke of へ; the dakuten ゛ voiced /he/ into /be/. The same shape with handakuten ゜ becomes ぺ (pe).
Common words starting with べ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing べ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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