PY

ぴゃぴゅぴょ — The PY Row

01

Why the PY yōon?

The PY yōon group is the final set in the entire hiragana chart — the only handakuten yōon, formed by HY + the round circle instead of the two-tick dakuten . ぴゃ appears mostly in phonetic shifts of 百 ("hundred"): 六百 (roppyaku, 600), 八百 (happyaku, 800). ぴゅ is rare — wind onomatopoeia (ぴゅーぴゅー, pyuupyuu, "whistling") and loanwords (ピューマ, pyuuma, "puma"). ぴょ is best known for the iconic hopping onomatopoeia ぴょんぴょん (pyon-pyon) — heard everywhere from children's stories to anime. With ぴょ, you've reached the end of the standard hiragana chart.

Memory trick: HY + ゜ = PY. Same shape as the H-row yōon, with a tiny open circle instead of two ticks — voiced as a sharp plosive /p/. PY is small and specialized: phonetic number shifts, wind sounds, and the universal hopping ぴょん. With this group learned, every kana in modern hiragana is yours.
02

Pronunciation at a glance

KanaRomajiPronunciation
ぴゃ pya"P" + "ya" blended quickly
ぴゅ pyu"P" + "yu" blended — like "pew"
ぴょ pyo"P" + "yo" blended quickly
03

Words you can read with PY combined kana

With the entire hiragana chart now under your belt — every base kana, every dakuten, every handakuten, every yōon — you can read any modern Japanese text written in hiragana. These examples lean on ぴゃ, ぴゅ, ぴょ. Print these as flashcards →

roppyakusix hundred (600)
happyakueight hundred (800)
pyattoswiftly / with a jolt (rare onomatopoeia)
pyuuwhoosh (sharp wind sound)
pyuupyuuwhistling wind sound
pyuumapuma (loanword)
pyonhop, jump (single bounce)
pyon-pyonhopping (continuous)
pyokontowith a sudden bow / nod
pyokopyokobobbing up and down
pyootoruPyotr / Peter (name, loanword)
pyokkoripopping out suddenly
pyon!boing! (single hop sound)
pyuttowith a sudden swift motion
pyon!hop! (interjection)
04

You've finished the chart 🎉

With ぴょ written, you've completed every kana in modern hiragana — every base, every dakuten, every handakuten, every yōon. From here, the natural next steps are: (1) start katakana at studykatakana.com — same sounds, different shapes, used for loanwords and emphasis; (2) begin kanji — the Chinese-derived ideograms that carry most of the meaning in Japanese text; or (3) keep drilling hiragana with the printable flashcard decks from this site until every character is automatic.