こ, in hiragana

Hiragana

is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...

, or コ in katakana

Katakana

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...

, is one of the Japanese kana

Kana

Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...

, each of which represents one mora

Mora (linguistics)

Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...

. Both represent ko. The shape of these kana comes from the kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 己.

This character may be supplemented by a dakuten

Dakuten

, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...

; it becomes ご in hiragana, ゴ in katakana, and go in Hepburn romanization

Hepburn romanization

The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...

. Also, the pronunciation is affected, transforming into [ɡo] in initial positions, and varying between [ŋo] and [ɣo] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ko in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal

Nasal consonant

A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...

 pronunciation [ŋo].

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...	Katakana Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
Normal k- (か行 ka-gyō)	ko	こ	コ
	kou koo kō	こう こお こー	コウ コオ コー
Addition dakuten Dakuten , colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...  g- (が行 ga-gyō)	go	ご	ゴ
	gou goo gō	ごう ごお ごー	ゴウ ゴオ ゴー

Stroke order

Other communicative representations

In Japanese Braille

Japanese Braille

Japanese braille is a braille code for writing the Japanese language. It is based on the original braille system. In Japanese it is known as , literally "dot characters". Below is a basic chart of Japanese braille with the Japanese hiragana character followed by the standard roman character reading...

, こ or コ is represented as:

-	●
●	－
－	●

The Wabun code

Wabun Code

The is a form of Morse code used to send Japanese text. Unlike International Morse Code, which represents letters of the Roman alphabet, in Wabun each symbol represents a Japanese kana...

for こ or コ is －－－－. To remember this, it helps to remember "Ko, for Coin"