How to use and type small hiragana and katakana

Have you ever tried to type hiragana or katakana in their small form and failed? Sometimes, even when you type the correct syllable, no option with a small hiragana appears. In this article, I will help you finally learn how to type these small hiragana on any computer or smartphone.

We rarely use these small kana, and the most common one is the Tsu (つ / っ ッ), which can easily be produced by typing two consonants in a row, like "tt" and "ss". The small Tsu is called Sokuon (促音), which indicates a doubled consonant sound or a pause in the pronunciation.

This small Tsu can appear in both hiragana and katakana words, like football, which in Japanese can be called Futtobōru [フットボール] or Sakkā [サッカー]. Other common examples include Gakkō [学校, school], Kitte [切手, stamp] or Zutto [ずっと, the whole time].

Other katakana and hiragana that we often use are (ゃ ゅ ょ), normally used to combine a consonant with the sounds ya, yu, yo. With these small kana, you can form sounds like ちゃ (cha), ピュ (pyu), びょ (byo), きゅ (kyu), and others. To type them, simply type the letters to form the syllable, followed by a small "y".

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The small Tsu (っ / ッ) - Sokuon

The small Tsu (促音 Sokuon) is one of the most frequently used small kana in the Japanese language. It marks a brief pause or a doubled consonant before the following syllable. In rōmaji, it is represented by doubling the next consonant.

To type the small Tsu on a Japanese keyboard, there are several methods:

• Method 1: Type the next consonant twice in a row. For example, if you type "kka", you get っか. Similarly, "ssa" becomes っさ, "tta" becomes った, and so on.
• Method 2: On most modern Japanese IME (Input Method Editor) like Microsoft IME, Google Japanese Input, or macOS Japanese, you can type "ltu" to get a single small っ. This method works universally on Windows, Mac, and smartphones.
• Method 3: On smartphones (iOS and Android), you can usually find the っ key directly on the keyboard by using the hiragana layout and pressing the corresponding key.

Examples of words with the small Tsu:

• がっこう (Gakkō) = school [学校]
• きって (Kitte) = stamp [切手]
• ずっと (Zutto) = the whole time [ずっと]
• サッカー (Sakkā) = football [サッカー]
• ズボン (Zubon) = pants [ズボン]

The small Ya, Yu, Yo (ゃ ゅ ょ) - Yōon

The small hiragana ゃ, ゅ, and ょ, as well as their katakana counterparts ャ, ュ, and ョ, are used to form compound sounds (Yōon 拗音) where an "i" vowel is combined with "ya", "yu", or "yo".

On a Japanese keyboard, you can type these small kana as follows:

• きゃ (kya) = type "kya"
• しゃ (sha) = type "sha"
• ちゃ (cha) = type "cha"
• にゃ (nya) = type "nya"
• ひゃ (hya) = type "hya"
• みゃ (mya) = type "mya"
• りゃ (rya) = type "rya"

For katakana versions, use similar inputs:

• キャ (kya) = type "kya"
• シャ (sha) = type "sha"
• ピュ (pyu) = type "pyu"
• ビョ (byo) = type "byo"

Everyday examples:

• しゃしん (shashin) = photo [写真]
• きょう (kyō) = today [今日]
• チョコレート (chokorēto) = chocolate [チョコレート]
• ニュース (nyūsu) = news [ニュース]
• レストラン (resutoran) = restaurant [レストラン]

How to use and type the small ぁ ぃ ぅ ぇ ぉ

Other small kana, which are not commonly used, are the sounds ぁ ぃ ぅ ぇ ぉ. They were previously used in syllables like wi (うぃ), we (ウェ), vi (ヴィ), ve (ヴェ), je (じぇ), fa (ファ), and others. Currently, most of these syllables can be written more simply, like vi (ヴィ) can be written as bi (び). If you want to type these small hiragana or katakana, you can type things like va, vi, ve, and vo.

There is a simple method to type any hiragana or katakana in its small form. To do this, simply type the X before the kana you want to make small. For example: "xa" produces ぁ, "xi" produces ぃ, "xu" produces ぅ, "xe" produces ぇ, "xo" produces ぉ. For katakana, use the same principle: "xa", "xi", "xu", "xe", "xo" or "la", "li", "lu", "le", "lo".

Another option is to type "1" before the kana, but this does not work on all devices and is less reliable. On modern smartphones (iOS and Android), you can usually find the small kana by long-pressing the corresponding key until a popup appears with the available variants.

Obsolete kana: ゐ and ゑ

It is worth remembering that the syllables wi and we have their own kana, which are obsolete. If you write them today, it will be ウィ and ウェ, but if you navigate with the arrows through the other options and writing suggestions, you will find the hiragana ゐ and ゑ. These kana are no longer used in modern Japanese (since the orthographic reforms of 1946) and today appear only in historical texts, proper names, or nostalgic contexts.

Some examples of these obsolete kana in modern proper names include:

• 昭和 (Shōwa) was historically written せうわ in older documents, but today only the modern form is used
• 大和 (Yamato) historically used わ in a different pronunciation
• 令和 (Reiwa) and other era names follow modern orthography

Limitations when typing

Unfortunately, only the kana アイウエオあいうえどうつやゆよ can be made small. The small versions of other kana like か, さ, た, な, は, ま, ら, わ, or the dakuten versions (が, ざ, だ, ば, ぱ) do not exist in the Japanese writing system and therefore cannot be typed, no matter which method you try.

So if you try to type a "small Ka", you will not get a result, because there is no small か in Japanese. This is an important limitation that often confuses beginners.

Conclusion and useful tips

I hope you enjoyed these small tips. Thank you for the comments and for sharing. With these methods, you should be able to type all the small hiragana and katakana on your computer or smartphone. The main inputs to remember are:

• っ / ッ (small Tsu): "ltu" or doubled consonant ("tt", "ss", "kk")
• ゃ / ャ (small Ya): "xya" or "lya"
• ゅ / ュ (small Yu): "xyu" or "lyu"
• ょ / ョ (small Yo): "xyo" or "lyo"
• ぁ / ァ (small A): "xa" or "la"
• General method: "x" before any kana = small version

We also recommend reading:

• Dakuten and Handakuten - Marks in Japanese
• Rōmaji - The Romanization of the Japanese Language
• Can ん (N) start a Japanese sentence?
• The definitive guide to hiragana and katakana