ya / ヤ
The first of the Y row — “ya” in two strokes. Same sound as hiragana や, seen in tire, diamond, and earphones.
Pronunciation
The character ヤ represents the syllable 'ya', identical in pronunciation to hiragana や. Common in loanwords like tire, diamond, earphones, royal, and as part of yōon combinations like キャ (kya).
ヤ is the katakana twin of hiragana や — the same “ya.” It appears in loanwords like タイヤ (tire), ダイヤ (diamond), イヤホン (earphones). Its small form ャ joins the i-column to build sounds like キャ (kya) and チャ (cha).
How to write ヤ
Trace ヤ 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 stroke sweeping from the left up to the right, then hooking back — a small flag at the top.
A long stroke crossing it from the top, descending and leaning slightly right to the bottom.
Origin
Katakana ヤ comes from the kanji 也 (ya, a classical sentence-ending particle). A fragment of its strokes was pared down to the shape ヤ keeps today.
Common words starting with ヤ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヤ 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.