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O (kana)
Character of the Japanese writing system From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In Japanese writing, the kana お (hiragana) and オ (katakana) occupy the fifth place, between え and か, in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 27th, between の and く. In the table at right (ordered by columns, from right to left), お lies in the first column (あ行, "column A") and the fifth row (お段, "row O"). Both represent [o].
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Derivation
お and オ originate, via man'yōgana, from the kanji 於.
Variant forms
Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぉ, ォ) are used to express morae foreign to the Japanese language, such as フォ (fo).
Stroke order
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The hiragana お is made with three strokes:
- A horizontal line from left to right.
- A stroke consisting of a vertical line, a small diagonal line going upwards and to the left, and an open curve heading right and downwards.
- A small curved stroke on the right.

The katakana オ is made with three strokes:
- At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right.
- A downward vertical stroke cutting through the first stroke, with a small hook at the end facing left.
- At the intersection of the first two strokes, a diagonal line going downwards and to the left.
Other communicative representations
Summarize
Perspective
Japanese radiotelephony alphabet | Wabun code |
大阪のオ Ōsaka no "O" |
ⓘ |
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Japanese Navy Signal Flag | Japanese semaphore | Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling) | Braille dots-24 Japanese Braille |
- Full Braille representation
* When lengthening "-o" morae in Japanese braille, a chōon is always used, as in standard katakana usage instead of adding an お / オ.
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References
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