te / て
The fourth of the T row — a single quick stroke 'te' that doubles as the connective particle every textbook beats into your head.
Pronunciation
The character て represents the syllable 'te', a hard 't' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. Part of the た-row.
て is one of the simplest hiragana — a single curving stroke — but among the most-used. It anchors 手 (hand), 寺 (temple), 出る (to go out), and most importantly the て-form of every verb in Japanese (食べて, 行って, 飲んで). The て-form is how Japanese chains actions together; once you know て, the grammar of "and then" opens up.
How to write て
Trace て 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 at the upper left with a short horizontal, hook sharply down and to the right, then sweep around the bottom-left with a gentle curl that finishes pointing roughly downward. The character looks like a curled flag or pennant — one smooth motion, no lifts.
Origin
Hiragana て evolved from the cursive form of the kanji 天 (ten) — meaning "heaven" or "sky." The kanji's stacked horizontals and slanted bottom strokes flowed together into the single curling line of て, preserving the top dash and the long downward sweep.
Common words starting with て
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing て 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.