Ke (kana)


Hiragana

Katakana
Transliteration: ke
Hiragana Man'yōgana:
Katakana Man'yōgana:
Unicode: U+3051
kana gojūon
n wa ra ya ma ha na ta sa ka a
sokuon wi ri mi hi ni chi shi ki i
dakuten ru yu mu fu nu tsu su ku u
chōonpu we re me he ne te se ke e
wo ro yo mo ho no to so ko o

, in hiragana, or in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent [ke]. The shape of these kana come from the kanji 計 and 介, respectively.

A dakuten may be added to this character; this changes it to げ in hiragana, ゲ in katakana, ge in Hepburn romanization, and the pronunciation shifts to [ɡe] in initial positions, and varying between [ŋe] and [ɣe] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ke in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋe].

Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal k-
(か行 ka-gyō)
ke
kei
kee
けい, けぃ
けえ, けぇ
けー
ケイ, ケィ
ケエ, ケェ
ケー
Addition dakuten g-
(が行 ga-gyō)
ge
gei
gee
げい, げぃ
げえ, げぇ
げー
ゲイ, ゲィ
ゲエ, ゲェ
ゲー

Stroke order

Other communicative representations

In Japanese Braille, け or ケ is represented as:

The Wabun code for け or ケ is -・--.

See also small ke.