Small Kana (っ ゃ ゅ ょ): Double Consonants and Combo Sounds

What Are Small Kana?

Small kana (捨て仮名) are miniature versions of certain hiragana and katakana characters. They serve two purposes: creating double consonants and forming combination sounds. Unlike regular kana that represent full syllables, small kana modify the pronunciation of surrounding characters.

There are two main categories. The small っ (tsu) creates a brief pause or double consonant. The characters ゃ, ゅ, and ょ combine with consonant characters to create blended sounds.

Small っ: The Double Consonant

When you see small っ in a word, hold your mouth in position briefly before releasing the next consonant. This creates a sharp, clipped effect shown by doubling the next consonant in romaji.

Common examples: がっこう (gakkou, school), きっぷ (kippu, ticket), ざっし (zasshi, magazine), にっき (nikki, diary), いっぱい (ippai, full). The biggest mistake is ignoring っ entirely — native speakers notice immediately because it changes the word rhythm.

Combination Sounds: ゃ ゅ ょ

These small characters combine with い-column characters to create single blended syllables. For example, き (ki) + ゃ (ya) becomes きゃ (kya) — one syllable, not two.

The full set: きゃ/きゅ/きょ (kya/kyu/kyo), しゃ/しゅ/しょ (sha/shu/sho), ちゃ/ちゅ/ちょ (cha/chu/cho), にゃ/にゅ/にょ (nya/nyu/nyo), ひゃ/ひゅ/ひょ (hya/hyu/hyo), みゃ/みゅ/みょ (mya/myu/myo), りゃ/りゅ/りょ (rya/ryu/ryo). The same applies to voiced consonants: ぎゃ, じゃ, びゃ, ぴゃ.

Real-world examples: きょう (kyou, today), しゃしん (shashin, photo), りょうり (ryouri, cooking), ちょっと (chotto, a little — combines both っ and ょ).

Small Kana in Katakana

Everything applies to katakana too. Small ッ creates double consonants in loanwords: チョコレート (chokoreeto, chocolate), コンピューター (konpyuutaa, computer). Katakana also has additional small kana like ティ (ti), ディ (di), and フォ (fo) for foreign sounds.

How to Practice

Start by identifying small kana in everyday Japanese text — product labels, manga, or news articles. Practice writing them clearly smaller than regular characters, positioned in the upper-left of the character space. Use our Kana Quiz to test recognition and the Hiragana Chart as reference.