Hiragana Letter Small E

In a Japanese IME using romaji input, type xe or le for standalone ぇ.

An input method editor (IME) converts Japanese sound spellings typed with Latin letters into kana. For combined spellings, enter the whole sequence: kye → きぇ, she → しぇ, che → ちぇ, or fe → ふぇ.

What is the difference between ぇ and え?

ぇ modifies the kana before it; え is the ordinary full-size e.

After another kana, small ぇ helps write a combined sound, as in きぇ, しぇ, ちぇ, and ふぇ. Full-size え writes the separate e kana. The corresponding small katakana character is ェ.

Small kana developed as a way to write special or foreign sounds; experiments date back to the Edo period. A 2015 study identifies ちぇ, an interjection, as the earliest small-e dictionary headword it found, in the 1955 first edition of Kojien, a Japanese dictionary. That is the earliest entry in the study, not proof of the first use of ぇ. A 2017 Japanese national-body survey records small kana in print from the Meiji and Taishō eras and prewar Shōwa, and says their use stabilized after the 1900 ordinance that set the hiragana and katakana taught in schools.

What does ぇ mean in a Japanese message?

Read the word: ぇ joins a sound or stretches e.

As of 2026, documented examples include ねぇ, where the ending is drawn out for a familiar call or bid for agreement; めぇ, a lengthened vowel in Kansai-style speech; and てめぇ, a rough form used in stylized dialogue. Standard spelling uses full-size え in ねえ.

On its own, ぇ is not a set reaction; its effect depends on the word around it.