myu / みゅ
The middle MY combined kana — み plus a small ゅ becomes 'myu'. Almost exclusively appears in loanwords — ミュージック (music), ミュージカル (musical), ミュート (mute).
Pronunciation
The compound character みゅ represents the syllable 'myu', formed by combining み (mi) with a small ゅ. It is pronounced as a single syllable 'myu'.
みゅ is み (mi) plus a small ゅ (yu). Together they make a single syllable /myu/. It appears almost exclusively in loanwords from English and other European languages — and almost always written in katakana (ミュ) rather than hiragana. ミュージック (myuujikku, "music"), ミュージカル (myuujikaru, "musical"), ミュート (myuuto, "mute / silence"), ミュージアム (myuujiamu, "museum"), ミュー (myuu, the Greek letter mu, or the Pokémon "Mew"). Native Japanese vocabulary essentially never uses みゅ — making it the second-rarest yōon after ひゅ.
How to write みゅ
Trace みゅ on the canvas at the top of the page. Animated arrows show each stroke's direction; trace along them and the stroke fills in. Each numbered step below explains what that stroke does.
Write み exactly: two strokes.
Write a small ゅ next to み. Stroke 3 is the small looping body (a tiny tear-drop); stroke 4 is the horizontal anchor crossing through it. Keep ゅ at roughly half the height of み.
Origin
みゅ is the written combination of み (from 美, mi) and a small ゆ (from 由, yu). Functionally, the modern Japanese writing system uses みゅ almost exclusively to transliterate foreign "myu" sounds — the syllable barely exists in native vocabulary.
Common words starting with みゅ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing みゅ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
Reading is only half of it. Drill the hiragana you’ve learned with spaced-repetition flashcards — the fastest way to make them stick.