ji / じ
The second of the Z row — し with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'ji'. One of the most-used kana in conversational Japanese — anchors time, self, and the casual copula じゃ.
Pronunciation
The character じ represents the syllable 'ji', a soft 'j' sound (like the 'j' in 'jeep' but lighter). It is し with the dakuten that voices 'shi' to 'ji'. Note that じ and ぢ are both pronounced 'ji' in modern Japanese — but じ is the standard form used in the vast majority of words.
じ is し (shi) plus the dakuten ゛. Despite the S-row origin, the sound is closer to English j than to a buzzed zi. It's one of the most-used kana in everyday Japanese: 時間 (jikan, "time"), 自分 (jibun, "self"), 同じ (onaji, "same"), 字 (ji, "character / letter"), 辞書 (jisho, "dictionary"). It also forms the casual copula じゃ (じゃない "is not", じゃあ "well then"). Romaji note: ji can technically also map to ぢ (D-row dakuten), but in modern Japanese almost every ji sound is written じ.
How to write じ
Trace じ 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 し exactly: a single flowing stroke. Start at the upper middle, drop down with a faint inward curve, then sweep around at the bottom and exit with a small upward flick on the lower right. One smooth, fluid motion.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 2 and 3 are the two ticks, written quickly above the body.
Origin
Hiragana じ shares its base shape with し, which evolved from the kanji 之 (shi, "of / possessive"). The kanji's flowing diagonal compressed into the single curving stroke of し; the dakuten ゛ was added later to voice the consonant from /shi/ to /ji/.
Common words starting with じ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing じ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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