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Look-Alike Kana: Four Checks for シ/ツ, ソ/ン, さ/ち and More

Most confusable kana separate on one of four checks: which way the long stroke moves, how many strokes there are, how the last stroke ends, or the surrounding word. Includes katakana that look like kanji, such as ロ and 口.

Inku editorial team · · 5 min read

Most look-alike kana come apart with one of four checks. First, the direction of the long stroke: in シ (shi) and ン (n) it rises, and in ツ (tsu) and ソ (so) it falls. Second, the stroke count: さ (sa) has one crossbar and き (ki) has two. Third, the ending: ぬ (nu) finishes in a loop and め (me) does not. Fourth, context, which is the practical way to tell katakana such as カ (ka) from the kanji 力 (chikara, “power”). Pick the check that fits the pair instead of staring at the whole shape.

Check 1: which way the long stroke moves

NHK WORLD-JAPAN's kana chart (PDF) shows the stroke order with arrows. It makes the four classic katakana easy to sort:

  • シ (shi): two short strokes, then a long stroke written upward from the bottom left.
  • ン (n): one short stroke, then a long stroke written upward from the bottom left.
  • ツ (tsu): two short strokes, then a long stroke written downward from the top right.
  • ソ (so): one short stroke, then a long stroke written downward from the top right.

So there are only two questions. Does the long stroke rise or fall? Are there one or two short strokes? Rise plus two is シ. Rise plus one is ン. Fall plus two is ツ. Fall plus one is ソ.

In print you cannot see the pen move, so look at what the movement leaves behind. A rising stroke starts low and ends near the top right. A falling stroke starts at the top edge and sweeps down to the lower left. The short strokes help too. In シ they sit on the left side, one above the other. In ツ they sit along the top. The katakana guide has a memory phrase for this pair if you want one.

Check 2: count the extra strokes

Some pairs share a body and differ by one stroke. Count before you guess.

  • さ (sa) has one horizontal stroke. き (ki) has two.
  • は (ha) has a left vertical and one crossbar on the right. ほ (ho) has the same left vertical and two crossbars. ま (ma) has the two crossbars of ほ but no left vertical.
  • ク (ku) is two strokes. タ (ta) adds a short third stroke inside. The katakana chart lets you compare both shapes with romaji turned off.
  • ウ (u) has a short stroke on top. ワ (wa) does not.

Check 3: how the stroke ends

For other pairs, look only at the last part of the character.

  • ぬ (nu) ends in a small loop. め (me) ends in an open curve.
  • る (ru) ends in a loop. ろ (ro) ends open.
  • ね (ne) ends in a loop, れ (re) ends in a short outward kick, and わ (wa) ends in an open curve.
  • さ (sa) and ち (chi) are near mirror images. The lower curve of さ opens to the right. The lower curve of ち bulges to the right and opens to the left.

The hiragana guide lists several of these pairs in its section on confusable characters.

Check 4: let the word decide

Some katakana look almost exactly like a kanji. In digital text they are different characters. Unicode, the standard behind digital text, names ロ “KATAKANA LETTER RO”, while 口 is a separate kanji whose Unihan entry gives “mouth; open end; entrance, gate”. On the page, though, the shapes can be nearly identical.

  • カ (ka) and 力 (chikara, “power”)
  • ロ (ro) and 口 (kuchi, “mouth”)
  • エ (e) and 工 (kou, as in 工場, koujou, “factory”)
  • ニ (ni) and 二 (ni, “two”)
  • ハ (ha) and 八 (hachi, “eight”)
  • タ (ta) and 夕 (yuu, “evening,” as in 夕方, yuugata)
  • ー (the long vowel mark) and 一 (ichi, “one”)

A useful rule of thumb: inside a run of katakana, read katakana: ロ in ロンドン (Rondon, “London”). Next to other kanji or hiragana, read kanji: 口 in 出口 (deguchi, “exit”) and 入口 (iriguchi, “entrance”). In ラーメン (raamen, “ramen”), the bar after ラ is the long vowel mark, not the number one. In casual writing, ー can also follow hiragana, as in すごーい (sugooi, “amazing”); it is still the long vowel mark.

The same idea works for hiragana and katakana twins. へ and ヘ (he) are nearly identical, and り/リ (ri) and か/カ (ka) are close. The sound is the same, so the question is only which script the word uses. The hiragana vs katakana post explains when each script appears.

How to practice a pair

  1. Name the check. For each pair you miss, write which check separates it: direction, count, ending or context.
  2. Drill the pair together. Mixing it into all 46 kana can hide the contrast.
  3. Read in real words. ソ in ソファ (sofa, “sofa”) and ン in パン (pan, “bread”) are easier to keep apart than the bare shapes.

Drill the hiragana look-alikes

Open Inku's free kana quiz in Lookalikes mode. It drills し/つ, ね/れ/わ, ぬ/め, ろ/る and は/ほ/ま. Type the romaji for each character. When you miss one, the quiz keeps the contrast on screen until you continue, so you can apply the check before the next question. Lookalikes mode covers these hiragana sets only. For シ, ツ, ソ and ン, use the direction check above whenever you meet them in a word.

Sources

Prepared by our editorial team with AI assistance. Product details are checked against the sources below.

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