57673
I'm still learning how to write Japanese, but I feel like I'm starting to get
a feel for the rules of stroke order. However, the stroke order for ヲ
(katakana wo) baffles me.

According to everything I find, it's 3 strokes: The two horizontal stokes, and
then the down-left stroke. However, フ and all the other katakana that have フ
as a subunit write it with a single stroke. Why is this single stroke split
for ヲ?
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2018-04-01T20:13:12.130
57672
2018-04-02T00:08:22.707
27182
question
katakana stroke-order stroke-count
Why is ヲ written with 3 strokes?
If you look at [Wikipedia's entry for
カタカナ](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A), you
can see a chart of the kanji that katakana are thought to be derived from:

> [![Image showing ヲ, and then 乎 with the first three strokes highlighted in
> red](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gShka.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/gShka.png)

The katakana ヲ is thought to come from the first three strokes of 乎, so if you
try writing those first three strokes quickly, maybe you can imagine how the
character came about. Here's the stroke order for 乎:

> [![Stroke order for 乎 from
> kanshudo.com](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zQnxr.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zQnxr.png)

As you can see, the stroke order is roughly the same as for ヲ, except the
strokes go in different directions, and the last two strokes are missing.

Although this is the traditional stroke order for ヲ, there are people who
write it the other way too, so unless you're taking a test or using
handwriting recognition software that is sensitive to stroke order, you can
probably get away with writing it however you're most comfortable.

That said, I'd recommend sticking to the usual stroke order for most
characters if you can manage it. Being consistent helps your memory, and
learning the way people usually write characters helps with understanding both
beautiful cursive writing and quick sloppy writing.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-01T23:51:22.633
57673
2018-04-02T00:08:22.707
2018-04-02T00:08:22.707
57672
answer