By the time I hit the T-row I had a system going: for each new character, ask what kanji it was cut from before reaching for a made-up story. The T-row rewards that habit more than any other row. Four of its five characters are near-copies of kanji you will use constantly: 夕 (evening), 千 (thousand), 天 (heaven), 止 (stop). The fifth is ツ, and you already learned the rule for that one back in the S-row.
So this row is mostly consolidation. One genuinely new pair to keep straight (チ and テ), one old rule to apply (ツ), and three characters that are almost free.
Why this row is mostly free
Katakana was built by snipping a piece off a kanji. Usually the piece is small and unrecognizable. In the T-row the pieces are large, sometimes the whole kanji, and they are kanji that turn up in the first few hundred you will ever learn. Learning タ, チ, テ, ト well now means you are also pre-loading 夕, 千, 天, 止. That is a rare two-for-one, so slow down and take it.
A note on the T-row sounds
The T-row is where Japanese pronunciation stops lining up neatly with the romaji grid. The five characters are ta, chi, tsu, te, to, not ta, ti, tu, te, to. The middle two shifted centuries ago: た before an "i" sound became "chi," and た before a "u" sound became "tsu." There is no plain "ti" or "tu" in native Japanese at all. Modern loanwords fake them with small characters (ティ, トゥ), which is a later topic, but for the basic row, チ is "chee" and ツ is "tsoo," full stop.
The "t" in ta, te, to is also unaspirated, the same clean stop as the K-row "k." No puff of air. And ツ, the "ts" cluster at the front of a syllable, is the single hardest sound in this row for English speakers, because English only ever puts "ts" at the end of a word ("cats," "bits"). Practice it by saying "cats" and then chopping off everything before the "ts."
タ (ta)
タ (ta)
タ is the kanji 夕 (yū, "evening"). It is also the top half of 多 ("many"), which is just 夕 stacked twice, and 多 is the character タ was formally cut from. Either way, the shape is a crescent with a stroke through it.
Against ク: タ is ク with one short stroke added inside the angle. That inner stroke is the whole difference.
Hook: 夕 is evening, so picture a thin crescent moon just after sunset, with a single star tucked against its inner edge. "Ta" as the light goes.
Stroke path: a short diagonal down to the right, then a long stroke sweeping down and left (that is ク so far), then a short stroke crossing inside the angle. Three strokes.
Sound: "t" plus the "ah" from ア.
チ (chi)
チ (chi)
チ is the kanji 千 (sen, "thousand"). Same three strokes, same shape. It is also hiragana ち with the big belly-loop removed, since both come from 千.
Hook: it is literally the "thousand" kanji. If numbers are not sticky for you, it also looks like a lowercase "t" that has been knocked slightly askew, and "chi" starts close enough to "t" to pull the sound along.
Stroke path: a short stroke slanting down-left near the top, then a horizontal, then a vertical that drops through the horizontal and hooks left at the bottom. Three strokes.
Sound: "ch" plus "ee." There is no plain "ti" sound in Japanese, which is why the romaji is "chi."
ツ (tsu)
ツ (tsu)
ツ is the character this whole group of look-alikes revolves around. Recall the rule from the S-row: the two short strokes sit side by side along the top, and the long stroke sweeps down, from the top right to the lower left. Top strokes, downward sweep. That is ツ. Its opposite is シ, where the short strokes stack vertically and the long stroke sweeps up.
ツ comes from 川 and shares an origin with hiragana つ. つ is a mostly horizontal hooking stroke, and ツ keeps that sideways, downward feel.
Hook: two icicles hanging from a ledge, side by side, with a drip of meltwater running down and off to the left. "Tsu" as the drop falls.
Stroke path: two short strokes near the top, side by side, slanting the same way, then a long stroke from the top right sweeping down to the lower left. Three strokes.
Sound: "ts" plus the short "oo" from ウ, the "ts" in "cats" moved to the front of a syllable. Hard for English speakers at the start of a word. The audio is the model.
テ (te)
テ (te)
テ is the top of 天 (ten, "heaven" or "sky"). It shares an origin with hiragana て, and it is basically て pulled straight.
Hook: the easiest one in the row. "Te" sounds like the letter "T," and テ looks like a capital T with a small extra stroke like a hat sitting on top.
Stroke path: a short stroke across the top, then a longer horizontal below it, then a vertical dropping from the middle of the horizontal, sometimes with a slight hook. Three strokes.
Sound: "t" plus the "eh" from エ.
ト (to)
ト (to)
ト is a fragment of 止 (shi, "stop"), and it is the simplest character in all of katakana: one vertical stroke with one short stroke poking out to the right from around the middle.
Hook: a signpost. The vertical is the post, the short stroke is a single arrow-board pointing the way. "Which way to the station? To, that way."
Stroke path: a long vertical top to bottom, then a short stroke starting on the vertical about halfway down and going out to the upper right. Two strokes.
Sound: "t" plus the "oh" from オ.
The kanji payoff
It is worth spelling out what you get for free here. 夕 (evening) is in 夕方 (yūgata, early evening) and 七夕 (Tanabata, the star festival). 千 (thousand) is in every large number you will ever write, and in 千葉 (Chiba) and thousands of names. 天 (heaven, sky) is in 天気 (tenki, weather), 天ぷら (tempura), 天国 (tengoku, heaven). 止 (stop) is on every road sign and in 止まる (tomaru, to stop). Learn タ, チ, テ, ト as shapes now and these kanji are already halfway familiar when you meet them. No other katakana row front-loads this much.
The look-alikes that live here
- タ (ta) vs ク (ku) vs ケ (ke). ク is bare. タ is ク plus a short stroke inside the angle. ケ is the one with a full vertical dropped through it. Bare, inner stroke, vertical: ク, タ, ケ.
- ツ (tsu) vs シ (shi). The rule again: strokes along the top and sweeping down is ツ, strokes stacked or low and sweeping up is シ.
- ツ (tsu) vs ソ (so). Both sweep down. ツ has two short strokes on top, ソ has one. Count the little strokes.
- チ (chi) vs テ (te). チ has a slanted top stroke and a vertical that hooks. テ has a short flat top stroke and a straighter vertical. If the top stroke is on a slant, it is チ.
- テ (te) vs ラ (ra). ラ, from the R-row, has a short top stroke over a curved stroke with no vertical through it. テ has the vertical. Vertical means テ.
Reading real words
Twenty characters down. Every word below is built only from Vowels, K-row, S-row, and T-row characters, plus the ー bar.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| タクシー | takushī | taxi |
| テスト | tesuto | test |
| トースト | tōsuto | toast |
| スケート | sukēto | skating |
| コーチ | kōchi | coach |
| スーツ | sūtsu | suit |
| タイ | tai | Thailand; also sea bream |
| テキスト | tekisuto | text, textbook |
スーツ is the one to check yourself on. It ends in ツ, right after the long bar. Read it out loud: "suu" held long, then "tsu." If your eye tried to make that last character シ, slow down and run the rule.
Decode two more the slow way before reading them whole:
- タクシー. タ is "ta." ク is "ku." シ is "shi." ー holds it long. ta-ku-shī. Taxi. Note how English "tax-" with its consonant cluster becomes "ta-ku-" with a vowel wedged in. That padding is the most reliable pattern in all of katakana.
- テスト. テ is "te." ス is "su." ト is "to." te-su-to. Test. English "test" ends in a "-st" cluster, so Japanese breaks it into "su-to." Once you expect that, you can almost predict how an English word will be spelled before you see it.
Drilling the T-row
Give タ, チ, テ, ト one careful pass in Hirakata's Study mode, saying the kanji each one comes from as you go: evening, thousand, heaven, stop. That verbal tag does a surprising amount of anchoring. Then put ツ in a Match round with シ, ソ, and ン so all four of the tricky group are live at once. This is the last row where you meet a new member of that group, so it is a good moment to prove you have it.
Practice before moving on
Before the N-row, check that you can:
- Write all five T-row characters from memory, in order
- Name the kanji behind タ, チ, テ, ト
- Tell ツ from シ using the rule, not a guess
- Tell チ from テ by whether the top stroke slants
- Read all eight practice words above at a normal pace, out loud
Where to go from here
The Katakana N-Row is next, and it brings ヌ and ノ, which pair up with ス and ソ you already know. For the hiragana version of this row, see Hiragana T-Row. If the kanji tie-ins here were useful, Understanding Katakana has more on how the two scripts relate. Drill タ, チ, ツ, テ, ト in Hirakata's Study and Match modes, with シ and ソ switched on.