re / れ
The fourth of the R row — two strokes 'れ' that close out the polite verb stem and stand on their own as 'that' (over there).
Pronunciation
The character れ represents the syllable 're', a soft Japanese 'r' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. Part of the ら-row. Take care: れ shares its left side with ね and わ — れ has no loop on the right (compare ね's closed loop and わ's curving sweep).
れ anchors the R row and shows up in many essential words — 練習 (practice), 歴史 (history), 連れる (to take along). It also appears in the demonstrative これ (this one) and あれ (that one), and as the noun-forming suffix 〜られる (potential / passive forms of verbs). Two strokes: a short left vertical anchor and a flowing right-side body very similar to ね.
How to write れ
Trace れ 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 vertical stroke on the left — straight or with a faint inward curve. Same opening as ね.
A long flowing stroke that begins at the upper right, drops down past the bottom of the first vertical, then sweeps to the upper right with a gentle hook and a small flick. Unlike ね, れ does NOT form a closed loop at the bottom — it just hooks out and ends. That's the visual difference between れ and ね.
Origin
Hiragana れ evolved from the cursive form of the kanji 礼 (rei) — meaning "courtesy" or "manners." The kanji's left altar radical (示) compressed into the small left vertical; the right radical (乚) preserved as the long flowing right-side body of れ.
Common words starting with れ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing れ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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