H
ハヒフヘホ — The H Row
01
Why the H row is doubly useful
The H row — ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ — sounds like hiragana は ひ ふ へ ほ, with フ read “fu.” It's the most reusable row in katakana: add a small dakuten (゛) and you get the B row (バ ビ ブ ベ ボ); add a handakuten (゜) and you get the P row (パ ピ プ ペ ポ). Learn these five shapes once and you've effectively learned fifteen.
Two things to note: フ is read “fu,” not “hu.” And katakana ヘ is almost identical to hiragana へ (same shape, same 部 origin) — you tell them apart from the surrounding text, not the glyph.
02
Pronunciation at a glance
03
Loanwords built on the H row
The H row opens a wide field of everyday loanwords. Here are two for each character.
ハートhātoheart
ハムhamuham
ヒーターhītāheater
ヒントhintohint
フォークfōkufork
フルーツfurūtsufruit
ヘアheahair
ヘルメットherumettohelmet
ホテルhoteruhotel
ホームhōmuhome, train platform
04
What's next
Next is the マ-row (マ ミ ム メ モ) — the “m” family. After that, only the Y, R, and W rows remain before the syllabary is complete.