Practice · writing
Write it out by hand.
Choose hiragana, katakana or kanji, then a set to write. Reading a character and being able to produce it are different skills, and the second one is what makes the first one stick. Trace it once with the guide, then write it from memory and compare. The comparison is the part that teaches.
Write this set
Write the set as often as you like. Extra rounds are practice: XP is paid for the first round, and a character only moves along your review schedule when it is due.
- Top to bottom, left to right.
- Horizontal strokes before crossing vertical ones (十 = horizontal, then vertical).
- Outside before inside - but close a box last (口).
- A vertical that passes all the way through comes last (中).
- Left-falling diagonal before right-falling (大).
Stroke order data from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel and contributors, used and modified under CC BY-SA 3.0. The stroke data and our changes to it stay under that licence; see the terms.
Ready for whole words? Vocabulary writing, by category. Prefer paper? Printable practice sheets with squared boxes and faded models.
Why two passes
Tracing alone teaches your hand the shape but lets your eye do the work, so it feels productive and transfers badly. Writing from memory without checking teaches you to make the same mistake confidently. Doing both, in that order, with the model laid over your own strokes at the end, is what turns recognition into recall.