ze / ぜ
The fourth of the Z row — せ with two tiny ticks (゛) becomes 'ze'. Anchors 'everything' and the assertive sentence-final particle ぜ.
Pronunciation
The character ぜ represents the syllable 'ze', a soft 'z' followed by 'e' as in 'pet'. It is せ with the dakuten that voices 's' to 'z'.
ぜ is せ (se) plus the dakuten ゛. It shows up in 全部 (zenbu, "everything / all"), 是非 (zehi, "by all means"), and 風邪 (kaze, "a cold/illness" — note: same romaji as 風 "wind"). It also appears as the masculine assertive sentence-final particle ぜ (やるぜ! "let's do it!") — slightly rough, used mainly by men in informal speech.
How to write ぜ
Trace ぜ 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 せ exactly: stroke 1 a long horizontal near the top; stroke 2 a vertical that crosses stroke 1 near the left side and drops down; stroke 3 a long flowing stroke that begins to the right of stroke 2, sweeps down past the bottom of the verticals, and exits with a small upward hook to the lower left.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small tick marks at the upper right. Strokes 4 and 5 are the two ticks.
Origin
Hiragana ぜ shares its base shape with せ, which evolved from the kanji 世 (sei, "world / generation"). The kanji's three verticals and base compressed into the strokes of せ; the dakuten ゛ voiced /se/ into /ze/.
Common words starting with ぜ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ぜ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
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