Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

O (kana)

o
hiragana
japanese hiragana o
katakana
japanese katakana o
transliterationo
hiragana origin
katakana origin
Man'yōgana意 憶 於 應
spelling kana大阪のオ
(Ōsaka no "o")

In Japanese writing, the kana (hiragana) and (katakana) occupy the fifth place, between and , in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 27th, between and . In the table at right (ordered by columns, from right to left), お lies in the first column (あ行, "column A") and the fifth row (お段, "row O"). Both represent [o].

Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal a/i/u/e/o
(あ行 a-gyō)
o
ou
oo
ō
おう, おぅ
おお, おぉ
おー
オウ, オゥ
オオ, オォ
オー

Derivation

お and オ originate, via man'yōgana, from the kanji 於.

Variant forms

Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぉ, ォ) are used to express morae foreign to the Japanese language, such as フォ (fo).

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing お
Stroke order in writing お
Stroke order in writing オ
Stroke order in writing オ
Stroke order in writing お
Stroke order in writing お

The hiragana お is made with three strokes:

  1. A horizontal line from left to right.
  2. A stroke consisting of a vertical line, a small diagonal line going upwards and to the left, and an open curve heading right and downwards.
  3. A small curved stroke on the right.
Stroke order in writing オ
Stroke order in writing オ

The katakana オ is made with three strokes:

  1. At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right.
  2. A downward vertical stroke cutting through the first stroke, with a small hook at the end facing left.
  3. At the intersection of the first two strokes, a diagonal line going downwards and to the left.

Other communicative representations

  • Full Braille representation
お / オ in Japanese Braille
お / オ
o
おう / オー
ō/ou
+う / +ー
chōon*
⠊ (braille pattern dots-24) ⠊ (braille pattern dots-24)⠒ (braille pattern dots-25) ⠒ (braille pattern dots-25)

* When lengthening "-o" morae in Japanese braille, a chōon is always used, as in standard katakana usage instead of adding an お / オ.

Character information
Preview
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER O KATAKANA LETTER O HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER O CIRCLED KATAKANA O
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 12362 U+304A 12458 U+30AA 65397 U+FF75 13012 U+32D4
UTF-8 227 129 138 E3 81 8A 227 130 170 E3 82 AA 239 189 181 EF BD B5 227 139 148 E3 8B 94
Numeric character reference お お オ オ オ オ ㋔ ㋔
Shift JIS[1] 130 168 82 A8 131 73 83 49 181 B5
EUC-JP[2] 164 170 A4 AA 165 170 A5 AA 142 181 8E B5
GB 18030[3] 164 170 A4 AA 165 170 A5 AA 132 49 151 55 84 31 97 37 129 57 210 48 81 39 D2 30
EUC-KR[4] / UHC[5] 170 170 AA AA 171 170 AB AA
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)[6] 198 174 C6 AE 199 66 C7 42
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)[7] 198 240 C6 F0 199 166 C7 A6
Character information
Preview
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL O KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 12361 U+3049 12457 U+30A9 65387 U+FF6B
UTF-8 227 129 137 E3 81 89 227 130 169 E3 82 A9 239 189 171 EF BD AB
Numeric character reference ぉ ぉ ォ ォ ォ ォ
Shift JIS[1] 130 167 82 A7 131 72 83 48 171 AB
EUC-JP[2] 164 169 A4 A9 165 169 A5 A9 142 171 8E AB
GB 18030[3] 164 169 A4 A9 165 169 A5 A9 132 49 150 55 84 31 96 37
EUC-KR[4] / UHC[5] 170 169 AA A9 171 169 AB A9
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)[6] 198 173 C6 AD 199 65 C7 41
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)[7] 198 239 C6 EF 199 165 C7 A5

References