he / ヘ
The fourth H-row katakana — “he” in one stroke. It looks almost identical to hiragana へ: same shape, same origin.
Pronunciation
The character ヘ represents the syllable 'he', identical in pronunciation to hiragana へ. Note that katakana ヘ and hiragana へ look almost identical — context tells you which writing system you're in. Common in loanwords for hair, helmet, helicopter, and many compounds.
ヘ carries the same “he” as hiragana へ — and the two kana look nearly identical, because they come from the same kanji. It opens loanwords like ヘア (hair), ヘルメット (helmet), ヘリコプター (helicopter), ヘッドホン (headphones). One of the easiest kana to write.
How to write ヘ
Trace ヘ 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.
A single stroke that rises from the lower left to a gentle peak, then slopes down to the lower right. Katakana ヘ and hiragana へ are nearly the same shape — context and surrounding kana tell them apart.
Origin
Katakana ヘ comes from the 阝 element of the kanji 部 (he / bu). Hiragana へ traces to the very same character — which is why the two kana are almost indistinguishable.
Common words starting with ヘ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヘ 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.