シ ン ツ ソ Katakana Quadruplets
I’m sure someone did something like this many times before, but here it is anyway. Let’s try to distinguish these troublesome characters once again!
The first visual clue is the angle of tiny short strokes: in シshi and ンn they are more horizontal; in ツtsu and ソso they are more vertical.
This is more clear with geometric or pixel fonts:
Though - surprise! - in case with ソso it’s not entirely vertical so as not to be confused with リri. And ノno just doesn’t have them at all.
Next clue is the direction of long bottom stroke: in シshi and ンn it goes from bottom left - up right; in ツtsu and ソso it goes from top right - down left.
This is more obvious with calligraphic fonts, as the long stroke always starts with a blob of ink.
Last thing about these characters is to write them correctly, so other people (or future you) will be able to distinguish them.
The last and most important clue is the stroke order in シshi and ンn strokes are written in order from top to bottom; in ツtsu and ソso strokes are written in order from left to right.
With this, you can make connection between katakana and hiragana: as in し stroke first goes down the left side, so do strokes in シ; as in つ stroke first goes from left to right, so do strokes in ツ. And the direction of the last stroke in シ and ツ also matches the direction of the stroke’s “tail” in し and つ.
Look at this messy calligraphic font and how シ and ツ are written. If it gets any more sloppier シ and ツ would literally transform into し and つ! In fact, it is said that both し and シ come from the same 之 kanji, and つ and ツ from 川. (look here if you want visuals and maybe some reading practice).
That’s all. Hope it helps. Fonts used: JackeyFont, Kozuka Micho, KanjiStrokeOrders and acgyosyo.
