Languages › Japanese Hiragana Wa or Hiragana Ha? Share Flipboard Email Print Japanese Essential Japanese Vocabulary History & Culture Japanese Grammar By Namiko Abe Namiko Abe Japanese Language Expert B.A., Kwansei Gakuin University Namiko Abe is a Japanese language teacher and translator, as well as a Japanese calligraphy expert. She has been a freelance writer for nearly 20 years. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on April 21, 2019 There is a rule for writing hiragana wa(わ)and ha(は). When wa is used as a particle, it is written hiragana ha. It is also important to understand the participle wa compared to other participles. Please see the following sentences. Watashi wa gakusei desu. わたし は 学生 です。Kono neko wa kawaii desu. この 猫 は かわいい です。 "Wa" of "watashi" is a part of a noun and "wa" of "kawaii" is a part of an adjective. Therefore, they are written as わ, not は in hiragana. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Abe, Namiko. "Hiragana Wa or Hiragana Ha?" ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/why-hiragana-wa-is-sometimes-written-as-hiragana-ha-2027872. Abe, Namiko. (2023, April 5). Hiragana Wa or Hiragana Ha? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/why-hiragana-wa-is-sometimes-written-as-hiragana-ha-2027872 Abe, Namiko. "Hiragana Wa or Hiragana Ha?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/why-hiragana-wa-is-sometimes-written-as-hiragana-ha-2027872 (accessed June 6, 2023). copy citation