Good evening, I was reading a manga and I'm not sure if it's ほん or if it's another expression, because something appears first that seems to be a zero, something like this: 0ほん...
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4That small circle is called the handakuten and it changes "H" sounds to "P" sounds. So instead of hon, it's pon. This pon is often a sound effect, but my grasp of manga conventions isn't very strong, so I'll let someone else who knows better respond with a fuller answer.– Eiríkr ÚtlendiCommented May 18, 2022 at 0:16
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1Would you mind posting a screenshot of the full panel? The meaning of onomatopoeia can change depending on the situation.– ShurimCommented May 18, 2022 at 1:01
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1 Answer
It's ぽん(pon) not ほん(hon). And as far as I can tell, it's simply a onomatopoeia, aka a word that mimics the sounds "pon!"
The circle on top is called 半濁点, which means half-voiced-dots. They only exist for the ha-line of the kana's (はha, ひhi, ふhu, へhe, ほho), and turns them into ぱpa, ぴpi, ぷpu, ぺpe, ぽpo.
I will not extend my answer beyond 半濁点 here, but please look at this for all possible sounds Hiragana can represent. It also explains 濁音 and 半濁音.
