He (kana)

he
hiragana
japanese hiragana he
katakana
japanese katakana he
transliterationhe
translit. with dakutenbe
translit. with handakutenpe
hiragana origin
katakana origin
Man'yōgana平 反 返 弁 弊 陛 遍 覇 部 辺 重 隔 閉 倍 陪 拝 戸 経
Voiced Man'yōgana弁 便 別 部 倍 毎
spelling kana平和のヘ Heiwa no "he"
unicodeU+3078, U+30D8
braille⠯
Note: This mora was historically pronounced as "pe", with one of two different vowel sounds, which later merged.

, in hiragana, or in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which represents one mora. The [he] sound is the only sound that is written identically in hiragana and katakana and therefore confusable according to the Unicode Standard. In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, ヘ can be written as small ㇸ to represent a final [h] after an [e] sound (エㇸ [eh]).

It is usually pronounced [he] with the aspirate [h] before its vowel. It is also often used as a grammatical particle indicating direction, which makes only the vowel sound [e].

Though the two forms へ and ヘ are usually rendered with a small difference between them, in order to match better with the appearance of other hiragana or katakana characters, they can often be rendered identically. A reader is not expected to distinguish one from the other without contextual clues.

Forms Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana Example words (with kanji)
Normal h-
(は行 ha-gyō)
he
  • へび hebi 蛇 snake
  • へる heru 減る abate/decrease
  • へんか henka 変化 change/modification
  • へい hei 塀 wall
  • へいあん heian 平安 tranquility
hei
hee
へい, へぃ
へえ, へぇ
へー
ヘイ, ヘィ
ヘエ, ヘェ
ヘー
Addition dakuten b-
(ば行 ba-gyō)
be
  • かべ kabe 壁 wall
  • べんきょう benkyō 勉強 studying
  • ベッド beddo bed
  • なんべい nanbei 南米 South America
bei
bee
べい, べぃ
べえ, べぇ
べー
ベイ, ベィ
ベエ, ベェ
ベー
Addition handakuten p-
(ぱ行 pa-gyō)
pe
  • いっぺん ippen 一辺 on a side
  • ペルー perū Peru
pei
pee
ぺい, ぺぃ
ぺえ, ぺぇ
ぺー
ペイ, ペィ
ペエ, ペェ
ペー