di / ヂ
The rare “di” — チ with a dakuten. It's pronounced “ji,” identical to ジ, and modern Japanese almost always writes ジ instead.
Pronunciation
The character ヂ represents a syllable pronounced 'ji' (identical to ジ) but is essentially never used in modern Japanese. Loanwords with a 'di' sound use ディ (te + small i) instead. ヂ appears only in a few archaic or specialized words.
ヂ is チ (chi) plus the dakuten ゛. It's pronounced “ji,” the very same sound as ジ — so in modern spelling that sound is written ジ, and ヂ almost never appears. You'll meet it only in a handful of native words (through a process called rendaku), essentially never in loanwords.
How to write ヂ
Trace ヂ 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 チ exactly: a short top bar, a longer bar across the middle, then a long stroke descending and curving to the lower left.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small ticks at the upper right — strokes 4 and 5 — sitting above the body.
Origin
Katakana ヂ shares its shape with チ, from the kanji 千 (chi, “thousand”). The dakuten ゛ voices it to “ji” — a sound now almost always written ジ instead.
Common words starting with ヂ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヂ 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.