Ma (kana)

ma
hiragana katakana
transliteration	ma
hiragana origin	末
katakana origin	末

ま, in hiragana, or マ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. The hiragana is made in three strokes, while the katakana in two. Both represent [ma].

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal m- (ま行 ma-gyō)	ma	ま	マ
	maa mā, mah	まあ, まぁ まー	マア, マァ マー

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing ま

Stroke order in writing マ

The hiragana ま is made with three strokes:

1. An upper horizontal line from left to right.
2. Another horizontal line going from left to right under the first stroke.
3. A vertical line from top to bottom, then a small loop towards the left, which then crosses the vertical line going to the right.

The katakana マ is made with two strokes:

1. A horizontal line from left to right, accompanied with a diagonal line towards the bottom-right.
2. A small line at the end of the diagonal line.

Other representations

• Computer encodings

Character	ま		マ		ﾏ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER MA		KATAKANA LETTER MA		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER MA
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12414	U+307E	12510	U+30DE	65423	U+FF8F
UTF-8	227 129 190	E3 81 BE	227 131 158	E3 83 9E	239 190 143	EF BE 8F
Numeric character reference	ま	ま	マ	マ	ﾏ	ﾏ
Shift JIS	130 220	82 DC	131 125	83 7D	207	CF

• Braille

ま / マ in Japanese Braille
ま / マ ma	まあ / マー mā	Other kana based on Braille ま
		みゃ / ミャ mya	みゃあ / ミャー myā

• Japanese semaphore