be / ベ
The fourth B-row katakana — ヘ with a dakuten becomes “be.” Opens bed, bench, and baby. (Still almost identical to hiragana べ.)
Pronunciation
The character ベ represents the syllable 'be'. It is ヘ with the dakuten that voices 'h' to 'b'. Common in loanwords — bed, best, baby, alphabet, belt, and many compounds. Visually almost identical to hiragana べ.
ベ is ヘ (he) plus the dakuten ゛ — and just like ヘ, it's nearly identical to its hiragana counterpart べ. It opens loanwords like ベッド (bed), ベンチ (bench), ベビー (baby), ベルト (belt). One simple peak, plus the ticks.
How to write ベ
Trace ベ 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 ヘ exactly: a single stroke rising from the lower left to a gentle peak, then sloping down to the lower right.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small ticks at the upper right — strokes 2 and 3 — sitting above the body.
Origin
Katakana ベ shares its shape with ヘ, from the kanji 部 — the same source as hiragana へ/べ, which is why katakana ベ and hiragana べ look nearly the same. The dakuten ゛ voices “he” into “be.”
Common words starting with ベ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ベ 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 katakana you’ve learned with spaced-repetition flashcards — the fastest way to make them stick.