mi / み
The second of the M row — two graceful strokes 'mi' that open words for ears, eyes, and looking.
Pronunciation
The character み represents the syllable 'mi', a soft 'm' followed by 'i'. Part of the ま-row.
み sits second in the M row and shows up in sensory and family words — 耳 (ear), 三 (three), 見る (to see), 道 (road). It's also the noun-stem suffix that turns verbs into nouns: 楽しい becomes 楽しみ ("fun" → "a fun thing, something to look forward to"). Two flowing strokes; angular at the top, looping at the bottom.
How to write み
Trace み 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 slanted stroke that drops from the upper left down to the lower middle — fast, with a small flick at the bottom.
A longer flowing stroke that begins at the top right, drops down through the area, curves around at the bottom in a sharp angle, and loops back up to the upper left with a small flick. The character should look like two small mountains with a connecting line.
Origin
Hiragana み traces back to the cursive form of the kanji 美 (mi) — meaning "beautiful." The kanji's complex stacked strokes compressed into the two flowing lines we write today, preserving the upper-left diagonal and the looping right-side body.
Common words starting with み
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing み by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
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