シ vs ツ and ソ vs ン: How to Tell Shi, Tsu, So and N Apart

The katakana シ (shi) and ツ (tsu) both have three strokes: two short dots and one long line. ソ (so) and ン (n) both have two: one dot and one long line. The parts are exactly the same. Only the way they are put together makes them different characters.

These four are probably the katakana that learners of Japanese confuse most often, and Japanese children mix them up too when they first learn katakana. In this post I go through the stroke order of all four, how to tell them apart, and how to practise so that your own handwriting stays readable. The links on each character go to our stroke-order pages, which are in Japanese but show each stroke as a numbered diagram.

The short version

If I had to put it in one line:

シ and ン: the last stroke goes up. ツ and ソ: the last stroke comes down.

The dots are placed differently as well, but if you remember the direction of the last stroke first, the other differences follow from it.

シ (shi) and ツ (tsu)

シ has two dots stacked on the left side. Write them from the top, each one from left to right, angled slightly down. The third stroke starts at the bottom left and sweeps up toward the top right.

ツ has two dots side by side along the top. Write them from the left, each one from top to bottom. The third stroke starts at the top right and sweeps down toward the bottom left.

In short:

• シ: dots stacked on the left, drawn more sideways. Last stroke from bottom left to top right.
• ツ: dots in a row along the top, drawn more downward. Last stroke from top right to bottom left.

It helps to compare them with their hiragana partners. し (shi) goes down and then hooks up to the right, and シ’s last stroke also heads to the upper right. つ (tsu) goes right and curls round to the lower left, and ツ’s last stroke also heads to the lower left. The shapes are different, but the final direction matches.

ソ (so) and ン (n)

ソ has one dot at the upper left, drawn from top to bottom. The second stroke starts at the top right and sweeps down to the bottom left. Think of it as ツ with one dot removed.

ン has one dot at the upper left, drawn from left to right and lying flatter. The second stroke starts at the bottom left and sweeps up to the top right. It is シ with one dot removed.

• ソ: dot drawn more downward. Last stroke from top right to bottom left.
• ン: dot drawn more sideways. Last stroke from bottom left to top right.

So シ and ン belong together, and so do ツ and ソ. I think learning them as two families of two causes fewer mix-ups than learning four separate characters.

When handwriting is hard to read

In print, the dot positions make the difference clear. In handwriting, a small change in the angle of the dots can make シ look like ツ, or ン look like ソ. ソ and ン are the hardest, because each has only one dot to go on.

The most reliable clue is how the last stroke ends. A sweeping stroke gets thinner toward its end. In シ and ン the thin end is at the top right. In ツ and ソ it is at the bottom left. Looking for the thick end and the thin end usually tells you which way the stroke was written.

The same works the other way round. If you write the last stroke as a proper sweep, readers will have much less trouble. Get the direction of the dots right and start the last stroke in the right place, and even a fairly rough character is unlikely to be misread.

For practice, I like writing a word that contains more than one of them. シーツ (shītsu, bed sheet) has both シ and ツ. Writing them side by side lets you feel the difference in your own hand.

Other katakana that look alike

Katakana has a few more look-alike groups. ク (ku), ケ (ke) and タ (ta) begin with the same short stroke and differ in what comes after it. ユ (yu) and コ (ko) differ in whether the bottom line sticks out past the vertical. ウ (u), ワ (wa) and フ (fu) differ in whether there is a dot on top and a vertical line on the left.

In What Order to Teach Hiragana In I suggested not practising look-alike characters back to back on the same day, but learning one well and then comparing. The same applies here: learn each of シ, ツ, ソ and ン on its own first, then line up all four and check what is different. The full katakana set is on our katakana stroke-order page. For hiragana, see Hiragana Stroke Order: The Characters Learners Most Often Get Wrong.

Comparing the four in StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer

StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer is an iPhone and iPad app for practising hiragana and katakana stroke order. When you choose a character, the model draws itself one stroke at a time in the correct order. Write one stroke with your finger or a stylus and lift, and the next stroke appears. After the last stroke the model disappears and only your own writing is left. It does not score or judge your lines.

For these four characters, the thing to watch is the direction in which the model line grows. Does the last stroke grow upward or downward? The animation shows exactly the difference described in this post.

The app opens on a gojūon table of the 46 basic hiragana. To reach a katakana character, tap the hiragana with the same sound and switch with the buttons at the top of the practice screen: し for シ, つ for ツ, そ for ソ and ん for ン. The arrow buttons at the bottom move through the hiragana in gojūon order, so to compare the four one after another, use the close button at the top left to go back to the table and pick 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 ッ and ャ are not included. There is no grid on the screen; instead you can switch the model between large, medium and small sizes, and show a dotted cross guide, which is handy for checking whether the dots sit on the left or along the top. It is a one-time purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases. On iPhone it runs in landscape.

For a first session, see Getting Started with StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer. For daily routines, see practice tips.