ga / が
The first of the G row — か with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'ga'. Anchors school, foreign countries, and the subject-marker particle.
Pronunciation
The character が represents the syllable 'ga', a hard 'g' followed by 'a'. It is か with the dakuten — two small marks at the upper right that voice the consonant from 'k' to 'g'. In some Japanese dialects, particularly older Tokyo speech, が is nasalized to a softer 'ng' sound when it appears mid-word.
が is か (ka) plus the dakuten ゛ — two small tick marks at the upper right that voice the consonant. It shows up everywhere: 学校 (gakkou, "school"), 外国 (gaikoku, "foreign country"), 鏡 (kagami, "mirror"), and most importantly as the subject-marker particle ga (これがいい, "this one is good"). Pronunciation note: word-initially が is a crisp /ga/, but mid-word it can soften toward a nasal /ŋa/ (like the 'ng' in 'singer') in formal speech and many regional dialects.
How to write が
Trace が 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 か exactly: stroke 1 a horizontal-then-curving slash from upper left dipping toward the lower right; stroke 2 a vertical that crosses stroke 1; stroke 3 a small detached accent on the upper right of the body.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right of the character. Stroke 4 is the upper tick (a short slanted dash); stroke 5 is the lower tick, just below and slightly to the right. Both are quick, tiny, and should sit clearly above the body so they read as a separate diacritic.
Origin
Hiragana が shares its base shape with か, which evolved from the kanji 加 (ka, "to add"). The dakuten ゛ is not part of the original kana — it was added centuries later as a diacritic system to mark voiced consonants. The same ゛ converts every K-row kana into its G-row counterpart.
Common words starting with が
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing が by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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