de / で
The fourth of the D row — て with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'de'. The most-used location/means particle in Japanese, plus the start of words for telephone, exit, and train.
Pronunciation
The character で represents the syllable 'de', a hard 'd' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. It is て with the dakuten that voices 't' to 'd'. The particle で ('at', 'in', 'by') is one of the most common words in Japanese — you'll see it constantly.
で is て (te) plus the dakuten ゛. It's one of the most-used particles in Japanese — marking where an action happens (家で食べる, "eat at home"), what tool/means is used (ペンで書く, "write with a pen"; 車で行く, "go by car"), and as part of the polite copula です. It also opens many essential nouns: 電話 (denwa, "telephone"), 出口 (deguchi, "exit"), 電車 (densha, "train"), 電気 (denki, "electricity / light"). Word-initial で is /de/; mid-word stays /de/.
How to write で
Trace で 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 て exactly: a single flowing stroke. Start at the upper middle with a short horizontal-then-curving sweep down to the lower left, then curl around at the bottom and exit with a small flick on the lower right. One continuous motion.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 2 and 3 are the two ticks.
Origin
Hiragana で shares its base shape with て, which evolved from the kanji 天 (ten, "heaven / sky"). The kanji's two horizontals and angled strokes compressed into the single flowing curve of て; the dakuten ゛ voiced /te/ into /de/.
Common words starting with で
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing で by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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