ハ (ha) – Katakana

Pronunciation

– Pronounced as the Japanese ‘ha’. Imagine someone laughing, going ‘ha ha ha!’

About

は, in hiragana, or ハ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. They are also used as a grammatical particle (in such cases, they denote ‘wa’, including in the greeting konnichiwa) and serve as the topic marker of the sentence. は originates from 波 and ハ from 八.

Mnemonics

Mnemonic 1: ‘Hut’ – Imagine that this symbol is a hut. You can see the two walls almost coming together at the top in order to form a roof.

Mnemonic 2: ‘Hammer’ – You are at an MC Hammer concert, and he’s just finished performing U Can’t Touch This. Naturally, you applaud. This kana depicts your arms as you clap (at the top of the picture are your hands coming together)