How to Write Dakuten and Handakuten: Where the Marks Go and When

Twenty hiragana take the dakuten mark ゛: the g, z, d and b rows, including ぢ and づ. Five take the handakuten mark ゜: the p row. Katakana has the same numbers. For how these relate to the basic kana and how they sit in the chart, see Dakuon, Handakuon and Yōon.

This article is about writing them. Both marks are small and have few strokes, but if you learn their position and order loosely, the habit is hard to undo later. This applies to Japanese children and adult learners alike.

Order: the mark comes last

Write the whole kana first, then add the mark. For が, write the three strokes of か, then the two strokes of the dakuten, five strokes in all. For ぱ, write the three strokes of は, then the one stroke of the handakuten, four in all.

Katakana works the same way. ガ is the two strokes of カ plus two for the dakuten, four strokes. パ is the two strokes of ハ plus one for the handakuten, three strokes.

Some children put the mark down first and then write the kana. I find it easiest to say: the mark is an extra added to the character, so it goes on last. Until the character’s shape is on the page, you cannot know where the mark belongs.

Position: upper right

Both marks go at the upper right of the kana. If you are writing in a square, they sit in the empty space in the top right corner.

Not touching the character, and not floating far from it. A good guide is just outside the top right part of the kana. For ば, the dots go above and right of the vertical line on the right side of は. For ざ, they go at the upper right of さ.

Take care with kana that already have a dot or short stroke at the upper right. The third stroke of か is a short stroke at the upper right, and ふ has a dot on its right side. In が and ぶ, the dakuten goes further up and further out than that dot. If the original dot and the dakuten run together, it looks like three dots in a row.

The two dots of the dakuten

The dakuten is two short dots side by side. Write the left one first, then the right one.

Make both dots the same length and slant. In the model writing in StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer, each dot is a short line from upper left to lower right. Keep them much shorter than the strokes of the kana, with a small gap between them.

The circle of the handakuten

The handakuten is one small circle. Write it in a single stroke and close it. An open circle can look like a “c” and be confused with the dakuten.

A circle about the size of the space the two dakuten dots would take is about right. Too big, and it looks like part of the character.

Common mistakes

Marks that are too big. A dakuten written as long as the strokes of the kana is a common mistake. Keep the dots short and quick.

Marks that are too small or faint. The opposite also happens, especially in small squares. The two dots should still be clearly visible as two.

Marks in the wrong place. Directly above the kana, or at the upper left. Decide once that the marks go at the upper right, and there is nothing more to think about.

Mixing up the two marks. The h row takes both marks. ば and ぱ are close in sound and shape, so they get mixed up.

へ and ヘ. Hiragana べ and ぺ and katakana ベ and ペ look almost identical. Which one you write depends on whether the word is written in hiragana or katakana.

When the marks get squeezed

On squared paper, a large kana can leave no room for the marks. They spill out of the square or get crushed.

In that case, rather than shrinking the marks, I suggest writing the kana slightly smaller and a little toward the lower left. A kana that takes a dakuten is a kana that leaves room at the upper right.

Linking the marks to the sounds

The dakuten makes the consonant voiced: か becomes が, さ becomes ざ, た becomes だ, は becomes ば. If you put your fingers on your throat and say ka and then ga, you can feel the vibration on ga. The handakuten turns the h row into the p row: the lips close and then pop open.

Saying the sound aloud while you write helps the shape and the sound stick together. The moment you add the dots, ka becomes ga. I think that switch is the interesting part of practicing these marks.

Practicing the marks in StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer

StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer is an app for iPhone and iPad for practicing the stroke order of hiragana and katakana. Choose a character and the model strokes grow one at a time in the right order. Write one stroke with your finger or a stylus, lift, and the next model stroke appears. When you finish, the model disappears and only your writing remains. There is no scoring and no right-or-wrong judgment.

Both hiragana and katakana with dakuten and handakuten are included. The chart you see when the app opens shows the basic hiragana, so choose the plain kana from the chart and switch with the buttons at the top of the practice screen. Open は, for example, and the top shows は ば ぱ | ハ バ パ. You can write the plain, dakuten and handakuten forms one after another and compare how the shape and sound change.

The model writes the base kana first, then the two dakuten dots one at a time from the left, or the handakuten circle in one stroke. If the position of the marks is hard to judge, turn on the cross guide to see where the upper right is. The speaker button plays the reading, for dakuten and handakuten kana too.

The < and > buttons at the bottom move through the basic hiragana in chart order. Even from a dakuten or handakuten kana, they take you back to the plain kana, so switch again with the top buttons when you want the next one.

It covers 142 characters: hiragana and katakana with their dakuten and handakuten forms. Combined sounds such as きゃ and small characters such as っ are not included. There is no grid on the screen; the large, medium and small sizes change the size of the model character. It is a one-time purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases. On iPhone it runs in landscape.

For characters whose stroke order often goes wrong, see Hiragana Stroke Order: The Characters Learners Most Often Get Wrong and Katakana Stroke Order Mistakes. For a first session, see Getting Started with StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer.