pa / ぱ
The first of the P row — は with a small round circle (゜) becomes 'pa'. Anchors bread, walks, and the universal toast 'kanpai!'.
Pronunciation
The character ぱ represents the syllable 'pa', a hard 'p' followed by 'a'. It is は with the handakuten — a small circle at the upper right that hardens the consonant from 'h' to 'p'. The handakuten is one of Japanese hiragana's two diacritical marks (along with the dakuten).
ぱ is は (ha) plus the handakuten ゜ — a small open circle at the upper right that produces the sharp plosive /p/ sound. It anchors loanwords like パン (pan, "bread" — from Portuguese pão), パスタ (pasuta, "pasta"), パソコン (pasokon, "personal computer"); native compounds after ん like 散歩 (sanpo, "a walk"), 乾杯 (kanpai, "cheers!"); and onomatopoeia like ぱくぱく (pakupaku, "munching / eating heartily"). The handakuten ゜ is visually small but critical — it's what distinguishes ぱ from ば and は.
How to write ぱ
Trace ぱ 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 は exactly: stroke 1 a short vertical on the left, slanting slightly; stroke 2 a long horizontal-with-tail near the top right; stroke 3 a long flowing curving stroke that begins below stroke 2, drops down through the centre, and loops around at the bottom right.
Add the handakuten (゜): a small open circle at the upper right of the character. Stroke 4 is a single tiny circle — quick, round, sitting clearly above the body. Note: this is the only diacritic in hiragana written as a circle rather than ticks. Don't confuse with ば (which has two ticks ゛).
Origin
Hiragana ぱ shares its base shape with は, which evolved from the kanji 波 (ha, "wave"). The handakuten ゜ was a much later innovation than dakuten — added to writing in the medieval period to distinguish /p/ from /b/ and /h/ in the H row. The same は base accepts both diacritics: ゛ → ば (B row) and ゜ → ぱ (P row).
Common words starting with ぱ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ぱ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
Reading is only half of it. Drill the hiragana you’ve learned with spaced-repetition flashcards — the fastest way to make them stick.