na / ナ
The first of the N row — a clean “na” in two strokes. Same sound as hiragana な, opening knife, number, and banana.
Pronunciation
The character ナ represents the syllable 'na', identical in pronunciation to hiragana な. Common in loanwords for knife, banana, number, sauna, natural, and many proper nouns.
ナ is the katakana twin of hiragana な — the same “na.” It opens loanwords like ナイフ (knife), ナンバー (number), ナチュラル (natural), and recurs in バナナ (banana). Its crossed shape comes from the top of the kanji 奈.
How to write ナ
Trace ナ 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 horizontal stroke across the upper third, left to right.
A long stroke crossing it from the top, leaning to the left as it descends to the bottom.
Origin
Katakana ナ was taken from the kanji 奈 (na) — the character in 奈良 (Nara). The crossed strokes near its top became ナ, leaving the rest behind.
Common words starting with ナ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ナ 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.