Pen and Hiragana

Konnichiwa! I'm working on writing and I understand Pen is ペ for pe, but what is ン? I don't see this symbol in my book and can't find Hiragana for “n”. Domo!

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) Heru-,

Thank you for your question! 

The word ペン (pen) “pen” is written in katakana. Katakana is often used for words that originate from other languages (i.e. loanwords). 

The character for “pe” is written as ペ in both hiragana AND katakana; the character for “n” however, is different depending on the script used:

- in hiragana, “n” is written ん

- in katakana, “n” is written ン

Since ペン (pen) “pen" is a loanword and needs to be written using katakana, we need to use the katakana character ン (n) here rather than the hiragana ん (n). 

Since ン (n) is a katakana character and not a hiragana character, you won't find it in your hiragana book. In your hiragana book, you will only find the hiragana character ん (n). 

You can learn more about the katanaka ン (n) in this lesson. 

https://app.rocketlanguages.com/members/products/5/lesson/5203

I hope this helped! 

勉強を頑張ってください！ (Benkyō o ganbatte kudasai!)