za / ざ
The first of the Z row — さ with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'za'. Opens words for magazines, cushions, and volcanoes.
Pronunciation
The character ざ represents the syllable 'za', a soft 'z' followed by 'a' as in 'father'. It is さ with the dakuten — two small marks at the upper right that voice the consonant from 's' to 'z'. The Japanese 'z' is similar to English but slightly less buzzed.
ざ is さ (sa) plus the dakuten ゛ — two small tick marks at the upper right that voice the consonant. It anchors 雑誌 (zasshi, "magazine"), 座布団 (zabuton, "floor cushion"), 火山 (kazan, "volcano"), and 残念 (zannen, "too bad / regrettable"). Word-initial ざ is a crisp buzzing /za/; mid-word it stays /za/ — unlike the G row, the Z row doesn't have a nasal variant.
How to write ざ
Trace ざ 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 さ exactly: stroke 1 a short curving horizontal near the top; stroke 2 a longer curving stroke that crosses through stroke 1 and sweeps down and to the lower left; stroke 3 a small detached hook on the right side (modern fonts often join strokes 2 and 3, but they're traditionally separate).
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right of the character. Strokes 4 and 5 are the two ticks — quick, tiny, sitting clearly above the body.
Origin
Hiragana ざ shares its base shape with さ, which evolved from the kanji 左 (sa, "left"). The dakuten ゛ was added later as a diacritic to mark voicing; the same mark converts every S-row kana to its Z-row counterpart.
Common words starting with ざ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ざ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
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