yo / ヨ
The last of the Y row — “yo” in three strokes, shaped like a backwards E. Opens Europe, yoga, and yacht.
Pronunciation
The character ヨ represents the syllable 'yo', identical in pronunciation to hiragana よ. Common in loanwords for Europe, yoga, yacht, yogurt, mayonnaise, and proper nouns like New York.
ヨ matches hiragana よ — a clean “yo.” It opens loanwords like ヨーロッパ (Europe), ヨガ (yoga), ヨット (yacht), ヨーグルト (yogurt). Its small form ョ builds sounds like ショ (sho) and チョ (cho).
How to write ヨ
Trace ヨ 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 across the top that turns and runs down the right side — the top bar and the right edge.
A horizontal stroke across the middle, left to right.
A horizontal stroke along the bottom, left to right — three bars joined on the right, like a backwards E.
Origin
Katakana ヨ comes from a partial element of the kanji 與 (yo, “to give” / “with”; modern form 与). Its three-barred shape was lifted from part of that character.
Common words starting with ヨ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヨ 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.