similar looking symbols

Is there a tip in reading and writing the differences to the following? shi -　シ tsu -　ツ so -　ソ n -　ン I notice that the angles of the lines are very slightly different, but I don't know if this is giong to be so easy for me to "kaku to yomu" :P

They are pretty similar but as you can see shi is more horizontal and the tsu is more vertical. Also think of it being writting with a brush, like a kanji. The shi is written from the bottom stroking up, and tsu the opposite, from top to bottom. when written with a brush its very appearnt where the stroke began and ended... why its important to learn correct stroke order and direction. The way I remind myself of it is Tsu, being written downward and more vertical, is the character tsu points down towards your shoes "Tsu/Shoes". I do the same with So, as I poke a needle down to Sew... or whatever analogy works for you.

I basically did the same thing because I noticed the directions of the two lines. I actually made so like "so down" as in "slow down" :] thanks for the help though! :!:

シ and ツ, ソ and ン are indeed extremely similar and confusing. Sometimes, if a Japanese child has bad handwriting, it's impossible to read and understand what they have written!! Usually, (thankfully) you can tell from context which one is used. PlusTheEffect-san's suggestions are extremely helpful! Every stroke of ツ 'Tsu" is written from TOP to Bottom so the lines are much more "downward" while シ "Shi" is more "sideways". :roll: