# び — hiragana “bi”

び is the hiragana character for the sound “bi”. It is written with 3 strokes, and in katakana the same sound is ビ.

- Reading: bi
- Strokes: 3
- Katakana: ビ

## How び sounds

び is ひ with dakuten (゛): hi becomes bi.

## Don't confuse it with

ぴ

## Words with び

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| びんぼう | binbou | poverty-stricken |
| ひとびと | hitobito | people |
| びょうき | byouki | illness |
| にちようび | nichiyoubi | Sunday |
| じゅんび | junbi | preparation |
| びょういん | byouin | hospital |

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From Moji Ninja (https://moji.ninja/), a free app for learning hiragana, katakana and the JLPT kanji from N5 to N1 with spaced repetition. Page: https://moji.ninja/hiragana-chart/bi/. Last updated 2026-11-01.