ro / ろ
The last of the R row — a single tight stroke 'ro' that anchors the number six and the word for color.
Pronunciation
The character ろ represents the syllable 'ro', a soft Japanese 'r' followed by 'o'. Part of the ら-row. Take care: ろ looks similar to る — but ろ has no closed loop at the bottom, while る does.
ろ closes the R row and packs into useful everyday words — 六 (six, often as ろく), 色 (color, as いろ), 後ろ (behind, as うしろ). It also appears as the casual imperative ending 〜ろ ("do it!", added to verb stems). One single tightly looping stroke; the visual cousin of る but without the small inward loop at the bottom right.
How to write ろ
Trace ろ 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 single flowing stroke. Start with a short horizontal at the top, sweep down and to the right with a wide curve, then sweep back around the bottom and up to the left, ending with a small flick. Unlike る, ろ does NOT form a closed inner loop at the bottom right — the stroke just curves around and exits. That's the visual difference between ろ and る.
Origin
Hiragana ろ comes from the cursive form of the kanji 呂 (ro) — meaning "backbone" or "melody." The kanji's stacked square radicals compressed into the single curving stroke we write today, preserving only the upper horizontal and the wide lower curve.
Common words starting with ろ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ろ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
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