zo / ゾ
The last of the Z row — ソ with a dakuten becomes “zo.” Opens elephant, zone, and zombie.
Pronunciation
The character ゾ represents the syllable 'zo'. It is ソ with the dakuten that voices 's' to 'z'. Common in loanwords for zone, zombie, resort, and proper nouns like Amazon.
ゾ is ソ (so) plus the dakuten ゛, and it keeps ソ's shape: a steep first mark and a downward sweep (the mirror of ン). It opens ゾウ (elephant), ゾーン (zone), ゾンビ (zombie), and appears in アマゾン (Amazon).
How to write ゾ
Trace ゾ 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 ソ exactly: a short steep mark at the top, then a long stroke sweeping DOWN from the upper right to the lower left.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small ticks at the upper right — strokes 3 and 4 — sitting above the body.
Origin
Katakana ゾ shares its shape with ソ, taken from the top of the kanji 曽 (so). The dakuten ゛ voices “so” into “zo.”
Common words starting with ゾ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ゾ 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.