Wo (kana)


を, in hiragana, or ヲ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora.

Modern usage

In Japanese, this kana is used almost exclusively for a particle; therefore, the katakana form is fairly uncommon in everyday language — mostly used as a stand-in for its hiragana counterpart in texts that need to be written entirely in katakana.
Despite originally representing, the syllable is pronounced by almost all modern speakers. Singers may pronounce it with the , as may those attempting to emphasize the syllable for clarity. Apart from some literate speakers who have revived as a spelling pronunciation, though, the onglide is extinct in the modern spoken language.
In Romaji, the kana is transliterated variably as or, with the former being faithful to standard pronunciation, but the latter avoiding confusion with お and オ. Katakana ヲ can sometimes be combined with a dakuten, ヺ, to represent a sound in foreign words; however, most IMEs lack a convenient way to do this. The combination ヴォ is used far more frequently to represent the /vo/ sound.
A "wo" sound is usually represented in katakana as ウォ instead. For example, ウォークマン and ウォッカ
FormRōmajiHiraganaKatakana
Normal w-
Woをヲ

Hiragana を is still used in several Okinawan orthographies for the syllable ; in the Ryukyu University system it is, whereas お is. Katakana ヲ is used in Ainu for.

Stroke order

Other communicative representations