エ (e) – Katakana

Pronunciation

– Pronounced as the Japanese ‘e’. Sounds closest to an English ‘e’ as in ‘end’.

About

In Japanese writing, the kana え (hiragana) and エ (katakana) (romanised e) occupy the fourth place, between う and お, in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 34th, between こ and て.

Mnemonics

Mnemonic 1: ‘e’ as in ‘end’. Imagine there is a tunnel, and in the middle of it is a big barrier, signifying a premature ‘end’ of the tunnel.

Mnemonic 2: This symbol, a pictograph of a carpenter’s square, is identical to the kanji meaning “work” or “craft”. It takes ‘effort’ to do work (as any student of the Japanese language would know).