How to write い (i) in hiragana

い (i) is one of the five vowels that open the chart; every kana syllable except ん ends in one of them. It grew out of the cursive form of the kanji 以 (“by means of”). Its two strokes begin at the top left, heading downwards, and the last one finishes at the bottom right. Words that start with it include 言う (“to say”), 維持 (“maintenance”), 意味 (“meaning”) and 委員 (“committee member”).