wa / ワ
The first of the W row — “wa” in two strokes. Same sound as hiragana わ, opening wine, white, and power.
Pronunciation
The character ワ represents the syllable 'wa', identical in pronunciation to hiragana わ. Common in loanwords — wine, Hawaii, white, power, shower, wax, password, and many compounds.
ワ is the katakana twin of hiragana わ — the same “wa.” It opens loanwords like ワイン (wine), ワックス (wax), and appears in ハワイ (Hawaii), パワー (power), シャワー (shower). Its shape is like ウ without the top dot.
How to write ワ
Trace ワ on the canvas at the top of the page. Animated arrows show each stroke's direction; trace along them and the stroke fills in. Each numbered step below explains what that stroke does.
A short stroke forming the upper-left corner, dropping down to begin the left side.
From that corner, run across the top to the right, then curve down the right side and inward toward the bottom centre.
Origin
Katakana ワ comes from the kanji 和 (wa, “harmony” or “peace”) — the same character that gives Japan the word 和 for things native and traditional. A fragment of it became ワ.
Common words starting with ワ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ワ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
Reading is only half of it. Write the katakana you’ve learned from memory in the trainer — the ones you struggle with come back sooner, until they stick.