ma / ま
The first character of the M row — a three-stroke 'ma' that anchors the polite verb ending every textbook teaches first.
Pronunciation
The character ま represents the syllable 'ma', a soft 'm' followed by 'a' as in 'father'. It is the first character of the ま-row.
ま opens the ま-column and shows up in everyday words — 街 (town), 豆 (bean), and the most-used verb ending in all of Japanese: 〜ます (the polite present tense). Once you know ま and す, the polite endings 食べます, 行きます, 飲みます open up. The shape has a distinctive looping bottom that visually echoes は and ほ.
How to write ま
Trace ま 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 horizontal stroke at the top — quick, slightly slanted, left to right. Sets the upper bound.
A second horizontal stroke just below the first, parallel and a little longer.
A long flowing stroke that begins at the top and drops down through both horizontals, then loops around at the bottom in a closed circle on the lower left, finishing with a small flick. The loop is ま's defining feature — visually similar to す but with two horizontals instead of one.
Origin
Hiragana ま evolved from the cursive form of the kanji 末 (matsu) — meaning "end" or "tip." The two horizontals preserve the kanji's stacked top; the looping body collapses the kanji's tree-shape lower half into a single circular curl.
Common words starting with ま
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ま by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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