Question about Hiragana

[saffity1184]

Hi all, I was wondering about different ways to write hiragana.

I've noticed that on some hiragana, parts are left out, like RI, or SA. Sometimes they're one continuous line, and at others, parts are left out.

I was wondering what the reason for this might be.

(Actually I was getting really annoyed that I kept messing up RI for the Hirigana Flash Cards because I've learned it as 2 lines rather than one continuous line, but then I don't want to learn and write it incorrectly.)

THANKS!

[Javizy]

Where did you learn the stroke order? Your hiragana should look like this http://japanese.about.com/library/blhiragana.htm Printed fonts will look different, just like with kanji, but handwritten kana should look like the examples on that site. If you follow the lessons there, it shows you the order/direction to write each stroke as well.

Another thing you might be interested to know is that kanji tend to look different when handwritten too. We all learn the correct stroke count/order, which is important for many reasons, but when it actually comes to handwriting, various abbreviations are used to avoid lifting the pen as much as possible. You can see some examples here http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... ritten.png Of course, you won't need to worry about that for a while

[saffity1184]

Ahh maybe that's it... I did learn my hiragana from about.com (And I'm trying to work my way through the first 80 kanji... but it's taking me a bit), it just was confusing to me that the RI in Kana Recognition Practice wasn't 2 lines... so I didn't recognize it.

It does make sense though, I guess the flashcards for that is actual handwritten Hiragana... which means I need to practice more

Thanks for the info!