So (kana)

so
hiragana katakana
transliteration	so
translit. with dakuten	zo
hiragana origin	曽
katakana origin	曽
spelling kana	そろばんのソ (Soroban no "so")

そ, in hiragana, or ソ, in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent [so]. The version of this character used by computer fonts does not match the way most native Japanese people write it with their hands. The native way is shown here as the alternative form.

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal s- (さ行 sa-gyō)	so	そ	ソ
	sou soo sō, soh	そう, そぅ そお, そぉ そー	ソウ, ソゥ ソオ, ソォ ソー
Addition dakuten z- (ざ行 za-gyō)	zo	ぞ	ゾ
	zou zoo zō, zoh	ぞう, ぞぅ ぞお, ぞぉ ぞー	ゾウ, ゾゥ ゾオ, ゾォ ゾー

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing そ

Stroke order in writing ソ

Stroke order in writing そ

Stroke order in writing ソ

Alternative form

Alternate Hiragana shape

Other representations

• Computer encodings

Character	そ		ソ		ｿ		ぞ		ゾ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER SO		KATAKANA LETTER SO		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER SO		HIRAGANA LETTER ZO		KATAKANA LETTER ZO
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12381	U+305D	12477	U+30BD	65407	U+FF7F	12382	U+305E	12478	U+30BE
UTF-8	227 129 157	E3 81 9D	227 130 189	E3 82 BD	239 189 191	EF BD BF	227 129 158	E3 81 9E	227 130 190	E3 82 BE
Numeric character reference	そ	そ	ソ	ソ	ｿ	ｿ	ぞ	ぞ	ゾ	ゾ
Shift JIS	130 187	82 BB	131 92	83 5C	191	BF	130 188	82 BC	131 93	83 5D

• Braille

そ / ソ in Japanese Braille
そ / ソ so	ぞ / ゾ zo	そう / ソー sō	ぞう / ゾー zō	Other kana based on Braille そ
				しょ / ショ sho	じょ / ジョ jo	しょう / ショー shō	じょう / ジョー jō

• Japanese semaphore