The shape of each character reflects the movement of traditional brush strokes. There are three ways each stroke ends: (1) Stop, (2) Release, and (3) Hook.

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The "stop" ending requires that you stop the motion of the pen abruptly before lifting the pen off the paper. The "release" ending requires that you gradually lift the pen from the paper resulting in tapering off of the stroke. The "hook" ending requires that you change the direction of the stroke and taper off immediately resulting in a short hook-like appearance. The direction of the hook is fixed for each character. Study the chart again and identify these stroke endings.

 

►	Two separate strokes may appear connected in a cursory writing or in printed font. For example, the hiragana り /ri/ on the left has two separate strokes, but it may appear as one continuous stroke as shown on the right.
►	Similarly, hiragana さ /sa/ has three strokes, but the last two strokes may appear connected as shown on the right. When you write these characters, do not try to connect the strokes, but you should be able to recognize them when they appear connected in the printed font shown on the right.
►	In contrast, one stroke is never separated into two separate strokes. For example, hiragana ち /chi/ has only two strokes as shown on the left. This is never written as three strokes as shown on the right.
ki: き vs. き sa: さ vs. さ chi: ち vs. ち ri: り vs. り	Compare the shapes of the same characters written in two separate fonts on the left. You need to be able to recognize both shapes, but when you write them, use the shapes of the characters on the left.