Katakana N-Row stroke order: ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
ヌ and メ are the pair to watch here. ヌ starts with a hooked stroke and finishes with a short stroke crossing it, while メ is just two crossing lines. ネ is the most complex character in the row at four strokes.
N-Row characters
ナ (na) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
Crossbar first, then the long stroke that falls through it.
ニ (ni) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
Two horizontal lines, top then bottom. The bottom one is longer.
ヌ (nu) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
The hooked stroke first, then the short stroke crossing it. メ has no hook.
ネ (ne) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
The dot on top, the corner stroke, the vertical, then the small stroke on the right.
ノ (no) 1 stroke
- 1
One stroke, falling from the top right to the bottom left.
Contracted sounds
Contracted sounds are two characters: the full-size base followed by a small ャ, ュ, ョ. Write the base exactly as usual, then the small character in the lower half of the next square, at about half size. Its strokes are the same as the full-size version, just smaller.
ニャ (nya) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
ニュ (nyu) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
ニョ (nyo) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Keep going
Learn what each character looks like and how to remember it in the katakana N-Row mnemonics article, then drill recognition with N-Row flashcards. The same row in hiragana is here.