# Wo (kana)

kana gojūon :
| wa | ra | ya | ma | ha | na | ta | sa | ka | a |
| wi | ri | (yi) | mi | hi | ni | chi | shi | ki | i |
| (wu) | ru | yu | mu | fu | nu | tsu | su | ku | u |
| we | re | (ye) | me | he | ne | te | se | ke | e |
| wo | ro | yo | mo | ho | no | to | so | ko | o |
| | | | n | | | | | | |
Kana modifiers and marks :
sokuonfu (gemination)
yōon (palatalization)
chōonpu (vowel lengthener)
Iteration marks
dakuten/handakuten (voiced & semi-voiced marks) :
Multi-moraic kana :
iu
kashiko
koto
sama
shite
toki
tomo
nari
mairasesoro
yori :
vte :
を, in hiragana, or ヲ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Historically, both are phonemically /wo/, reflected in the Nihon-shiki wo, although the contemporary pronunciation is , reflected in the Hepburn romanization and Kunrei-shiki romanization o. Thus it is pronounced identically to the kana o. Despite this phonemic merger, the kana wo is sometimes regarded as a distinct phoneme from /o/, represented as /wo/, to account for historical pronunciation and for orthographic purposes.

## Modern usage

In the 1946 orthographic reforms, を was largely replaced by お. In Japanese, this kana is used almost exclusively for a particle for both forms; therefore, the katakana form (ヲ) is rare in everyday language, mostly seen in all-katakana text. A "wo" sound is usually represented as うぉ or ウォ instead.
Despite originally representing, the mora is pronounced by almost all modern speakers. Singers may pronounce it with the, as a stylistic effect. Apart from some literate speakers who have revived [wo] as a spelling pronunciation, though, this [w] sound is extinct in the modern spoken language. Some non-standard dialectal Japanese still pronounce it [wo], notably dialects in the Ehime Prefecture.
In Romaji, the kana is transliterated variably as ⟨o⟩ or ⟨wo⟩, with the former being faithful to standard pronunciation, but the latter avoiding confusion with お and オ, and being in line with the structure of the gojūon. を is transliterated as o in Modified Hepburn and Kunrei and as wo in Traditional Hepburn and Nippon-shiki.
Katakana ヲ can sometimes be combined with a dakuten, ヺ, to represent a /vo/ sound in foreign words; however, most IMEs lack a convenient way to do this as this usage has largely fallen into disuse. The digraph ヴォ is used far more frequently to represent the /vo/ sound.
| Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana | Katakana |
| Normal w- (わ行 wa-gyō) | (w)o | を | ヲ |
Hiragana を is still used in several Okinawan orthographies for the mora /o~wo/; in the Ryukyu University system, it is /o/, whereas お is /ʔo/. Katakana ヲ is used in Ainu for /wo/.

## Stroke order

| Stroke order in writing を | Stroke order in writing ヲ |

## Other communicative representations

| Japanese radiotelephony alphabet | Wabun code |
| 尾張のヲ Wowari no "Wo" | ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ |
| Japanese Navy Signal Flag | Japanese semaphore | Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling) | Braille dots-35 Japanese Braille |
* Full Braille representation
を / ヲ in Japanese Braille :
| を / ヲ wo | をう / ヲー wō | ヺ vo | ヺー vō |
* Computer encodings
Character information :
| Preview | を | を | ヲ | ヲ | ｦ | ｦ | ㋾ | ㋾ |
| Unicode name | HIRAGANA LETTER WO | HIRAGANA LETTER WO | KATAKANA LETTER WO | KATAKANA LETTER WO | HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER WO | HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER WO | CIRCLED KATAKANA WO | CIRCLED KATAKANA WO |
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 12434 | U+3092 | 12530 | U+30F2 | 65382 | U+FF66 | 13054 | U+32FE |
| UTF-8 | 227 130 146 | E3 82 92 | 227 131 178 | E3 83 B2 | 239 189 166 | EF BD A6 | 227 139 190 | E3 8B BE |
| GB 18030 | 164 242 | A4 F2 | 165 242 | A5 F2 | 132 49 150 50 | 84 31 96 32 | 129 57 214 50 | 81 39 D6 32 |
| Numeric character reference | &#12434; | &#x3092; | &#12530; | &#x30F2; | &#65382; | &#xFF66; | &#13054; | &#x32FE; |
| Shift JIS | 130 240 | 82 F0 | 131 146 | 83 92 | 166 | A6 | | |
| EUC-JP | 164 242 | A4 F2 | 165 242 | A5 F2 | 142 166 | 8E A6 | | |
| EUC-KR / UHC | 170 242 | AA F2 | 171 242 | AB F2 | | | | |
| Big5 (non-ETEN kana) | 198 246 | C6 F6 | 199 172 | C7 AC | | | | |
| Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS) | 199 121 | C7 79 | 199 238 | C7 EE | | | | |
Character information :
| Preview | 𛅒 | 𛅒 | 𛅦 | 𛅦 | ヺ | ヺ |
| Unicode name | HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WO | HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WO | KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WO | KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WO | KATAKANA LETTER VO | KATAKANA LETTER VO |
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 110930 | U+1B152 | 110950 | U+1B166 | 12538 | U+30FA |
| UTF-8 | 240 155 133 146 | F0 9B 85 92 | 240 155 133 166 | F0 9B 85 A6 | 227 131 186 | E3 83 BA |
| UTF-16 | 55340 56658 | D82C DD52 | 55340 56678 | D82C DD66 | 12538 | 30FA |
| GB 18030 | 147 54 132 52 | 93 36 84 34 | 147 54 134 52 | 93 36 86 34 | 129 57 167 56 | 81 39 A7 38 |
| Numeric character reference | &#110930; | &#x1B152; | &#110950; | &#x1B166; | &#12538; | &#x30FA; |
| Shift JIS (KanjiTalk 7) | | | | | 136 109 | 88 6D |
| Shift JIS-2004 | | | | | 132 149 | 84 95 |
| EUC-JIS-2004 | | | | | 167 245 | A7 F5 |