Katakana R-Row stroke order: ラ リ ル レ ロ
The R-row has the one katakana that looks like a box: ロ. It is three strokes, not four. The top and right side are a single corner stroke. レ is a single stroke, and ル is two.
R-Row characters
ラ (ra) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
The short top line, then the corner stroke below it.
リ (ri) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
The short left stroke, then the long right stroke.
ル (ru) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
The left stroke first, then the right stroke that kicks up at the end.
レ (re) 1 stroke
- 1
One stroke, down and then up to the right.
ロ (ro) 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Three strokes: the left side, the top and right side together, then the bottom.
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.
リャ (rya) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
リュ (ryu) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
リョ (ryo) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Keep going
Learn what each character looks like and how to remember it in the katakana R-Row mnemonics article, then drill recognition with R-Row flashcards. The same row in hiragana is here.