bi / び
The second of the B row — ひ with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'bi'. Anchors fireworks, shrimp, and the days-of-the-week suffix 〜び.
Pronunciation
The character び represents the syllable 'bi', a soft 'b' followed by 'i'. It is ひ with the dakuten that voices 'h' to 'b'.
び is ひ (hi) plus the dakuten ゛. It appears in 花火 (hanabi, "fireworks"), 海老 (ebi, "shrimp"), 鼻血 (hanaji, "nosebleed" — uses ぢ, but the noun for nose, 鼻 hana, often precedes び-words), 病院 (byouin, "hospital" — uses combined びょ), and the days-of-the-week suffix 〜日 (youbi, "day-of-the-week" — 月曜日 getsuyoubi "Monday"). The shape is one of the easiest in the B row: just write ひ as a single curving stroke, then add the two ticks.
How to write び
Trace び 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 ひ exactly: a single flowing stroke shaped like a wide downturned curve. Start at the upper left, sweep down to the middle, curve gracefully out to the upper right with a small flick. One smooth motion — looks like a smile or a wide rolling wave.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 2 and 3 are the two ticks.
Origin
Hiragana び shares its base shape with ひ, which evolved from the kanji 比 (hi, "to compare"). The kanji's two facing radicals flowed together into the single curving stroke of ひ; the dakuten ゛ voiced /hi/ into /bi/. The same shape with handakuten ゜ becomes ぴ (pi).
Common words starting with び
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing び by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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