e / え
The fourth vowel — a clean, short 'e' with no glide. Two strokes shape its distinctive zigzag flow.
Pronunciation
The character え represents the vowel 'e', pronounced like the 'e' in 'pet' or 'bed'. It is one of the five basic Japanese vowels. The sound is short and crisp — never drawn out unless explicitly doubled (ええ) or extended with い (えい).
え anchors the え-row (け, せ, て, ね, へ…) and sits fourth in the vowel sequence. It's a less common vowel in everyday speech than あ or い, but it's at the heart of many essential words: いえ (house), えき (station), えん (yen).
How to write え
Trace え 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.
A short, slightly slanted horizontal mark at the top — similar to う's opener.
A flowing line that drops straight, sweeps right into a horizontal middle, then loops down and to the left, ending with a small rightward tail at the bottom right. え's body has a distinctive zigzag flow.
Origin
Hiragana え traces back to the kanji 衣 (e) — meaning “clothing” or “garment.” The cursive rendering kept the angular top of 衣 but flowed the lower strokes into the loose, looping body that gives え its modern silhouette.
Common words starting with え
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing え by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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