nu / ぬ
The middle of the N row — two flowing strokes 'nu' that pack into a handful of niche but useful words.
Pronunciation
The character ぬ represents the syllable 'nu', a soft 'n' followed by 'u' (with relaxed lips). Part of the な-row. Take care: ぬ looks similar to め (me) — but ぬ has an extra closed loop at the lower right, while め is more open.
ぬ is the rarest character in the N row — it doesn't appear in many high-frequency words by itself. But it shows up in 布 (cloth), 犬 (dog, as いぬ), and the archaic verb ending 〜ぬ that still surfaces in old expressions and formal language. The shape is closely related to め (me): both have a similar looping body, but ぬ's loop sits higher and to the right.
How to write ぬ
Trace ぬ 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.
A short curving stroke on the upper left — a small downward sweep with a flick.
A long flowing stroke that begins where stroke 1 ends, sweeps down through the center, loops around the lower right in a closed circle, and exits with a small flick on the lower right. The loop is ぬ's defining feature — sits noticeably higher than め's loop, which is what visually distinguishes the two characters.
Origin
Hiragana ぬ derives from the cursive form of the kanji 奴 (nu) — meaning "servant" or "that person." The kanji's left radical (女, woman) and right radical (又, hand) flowed together into the two strokes of ぬ, preserving the central loop and the small upper-left accent.
Common words starting with ぬ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ぬ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
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