no / ノ
The last of the N row — and the simplest katakana of all: a single sweeping stroke. Same sound as hiragana の.
Pronunciation
The character ノ represents the syllable 'no', identical in pronunciation to hiragana の. Common in loanwords for notebook, piano, knock, casino, and many proper nouns. One of the simplest katakana — written in a single stroke.
ノ matches hiragana の — a clean “no.” One stroke makes it the simplest katakana in the entire syllabary. It appears constantly: ノート (notebook), ピアノ (piano), ノック (knock), カジノ (casino). It comes from the kanji 乃.
How to write ノ
Trace ノ 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 diagonal stroke sweeping from the upper right down to the lower left. One smooth motion — ノ is the simplest katakana of all.
Origin
Katakana ノ comes from the kanji 乃 (no, an archaic possessive particle). Its single sweeping stroke is all of ノ — the leanest fragment in the whole set.
Common words starting with ノ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ノ 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.