pe / ペ
The fourth P-row katakana — ヘ with a handakuten becomes “pe.” Opens pen, pet, and paper. (Still near-identical to hiragana ぺ.)
Pronunciation
The character ペ represents the syllable 'pe'. It is ヘ with the handakuten that hardens 'h' to 'p'. Common in loanwords for pen, pet, paper, pace, pair, space, pedal, and many compounds.
ペ is ヘ (he) plus the handakuten ゜ — and like ヘ, it's nearly identical to hiragana ぺ. It opens loanwords like ペン (pen), ペット (pet), ペーパー (paper), ペース (pace). One simple peak, plus a circle.
How to write ペ
Trace ペ 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 ヘ exactly: a single stroke rising from the lower left to a gentle peak, then sloping down to the lower right.
Add the handakuten (゜): a single small circle at the upper right — stroke 2 — above the body.
Origin
Katakana ペ shares its shape with ヘ, from the kanji 部 — the same source as hiragana へ/ぺ, so katakana ペ and hiragana ぺ look nearly the same. The handakuten ゜ turns “he” into “pe.”
Common words starting with ペ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ペ 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.