ge / げ
The fourth of the G row — け with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'ge'. Anchors the most-used word in greetings: げんき (healthy, energetic).
Pronunciation
The character げ represents the syllable 'ge', a hard 'g' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. It is け with the dakuten that voices 'k' to 'g'.
げ is け (ke) plus the dakuten ゛. It shows up in 元気 (genki, "healthy/energetic" — the cornerstone of every Japanese greeting: お元気ですか?), 月曜日 (getsuyoubi, "Monday"), 下宿 (geshuku, "lodging"), 芸術 (geijutsu, "art"), and 影 (kage, "shadow"). Word-initial げ is /ge/; mid-word can soften to /ŋe/.
How to write げ
Trace げ 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 け exactly: stroke 1 a short vertical on the left, slightly slanted; stroke 2 a long horizontal-with-tail that begins at the upper middle, crosses through stroke 1, dips down past the bottom of the vertical, and exits with a small hook to the lower left; stroke 3 a small detached stroke at the lower right (often drawn as a vertical or slight curve).
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 4 and 5 are the two ticks, written quickly above the right side of the body.
Origin
Hiragana げ shares its base shape with け, which evolved from the kanji 計 (kei, "to measure / plan"). The kanji's left radical (言, speech) and right component (十, ten) compressed into the strokes of け; the dakuten ゛ was added later to mark voicing.
Common words starting with げ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing げ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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