O (kana)

o
hiragana
katakana
transliteration o
hiragana origin
katakana origin
spelling kana 大阪のオ
(Ōsaka no "o")

In Japanese writing, the kana (hiragana) and (katakana) occupy the fifth place, between and , in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 27th, between and . In the table at right (ordered by columns, from right to left), お lies in the first column (あ行, "column A") and the fifth row (お段, "row O"). Both represent [o].

Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal a/i/u/e/o
(あ行 a-gyō)
O
Ou
Ō
おう, おぅ
おお, おぉ
おー, お~
オウ, オゥ
オオ, オォ
オー, オ~

Derivation

お and オ originate, via man'yōgana, from the kanji 於.

Variant forms

Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぉ, ォ) are used to express morae foreign to the Japanese language, such as フォ (fo).

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing お
Stroke order in writing お
Stroke order in writing オ
Stroke order in writing オ

The hiragana お is made with three strokes:

  1. A horizontal line from left to right.
  2. A stroke consisting of a vertical line, a small diagonal line going upwards and to the left, and an open curve heading right and downwards.
  3. A small curved stroke on the right.

The katakana オ is made with three strokes:

  1. At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right.
  2. A downward vertical stroke cutting through the first stroke, with a small hook at the end facing left.
  3. At the intersection of the first two strokes, a diagonal line going downwards and to the left.

Other communicative representations

Character
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER O KATAKANA LETTER O HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER O
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 12362 U+304A 12458 U+30AA 65397 U+FF75
UTF-8 227 129 138 E3 81 8A 227 130 170 E3 82 AA 239 189 181 EF BD B5
Numeric character reference お お オ オ オ オ
Shift JIS 130 168 82 A8 131 73 83 49 181 B5
Character
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL O KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 12361 U+3049 12457 U+30A9 65387 U+FF6B
UTF-8 227 129 137 E3 81 89 227 130 169 E3 82 A9 239 189 171 EF BD AB
Numeric character reference ぉ ぉ ォ ォ ォ ォ
Shift JIS 130 167 82 A7 131 72 83 48 171 AB
お / オ in Japanese Braille
お / オ
o
おう / オー
ō/ou
⠊ (braille pattern dots-24) ⠊ (braille pattern dots-24)⠒ (braille pattern dots-25)

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