Katakana T-Row stroke order: タ チ ツ テ ト
ツ is the partner to シ: its dots run across the top, and the long stroke falls from the top right. チ and テ look alike in many fonts, but チ starts with a short slanted stroke where テ starts with a flat one.
T-Row characters
タ (ta) 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Like ク with a short extra stroke inside: falling stroke, corner stroke, then the inner mark.
チ (chi) 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
The short slanted stroke at the top first, then the crossbar, then the vertical. テ starts flat instead.
ツ (tsu) 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Two dots across the top, then the long stroke falling from the top right. Compare with シ.
テ (te) 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Two horizontal lines, then the stroke falling down to the left.
ト (to) 2 strokes
- 1
- 2
The vertical first, then the short stroke to the right.
Dakuten and handakuten
ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド are written exactly like the characters above, then finished with two short ticks (dakuten) at the top right. The left tick comes first, and both always come after the rest of the character.
ダ (da) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
ヂ (ji) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
ヅ (zu) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
デ (de) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
ド (do) 4 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
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.
チャ (cha) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
チュ (chu) 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
チョ (cho) 6 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Keep going
Learn what each character looks like and how to remember it in the katakana T-Row mnemonics article, then drill recognition with T-Row flashcards. The same row in hiragana is here.