u / う
The middle vowel — a relaxed, unrounded 'u' that English speakers often over-pucker. Two strokes shape its sweeping bottom curve.
Pronunciation
The character う represents the vowel 'u', pronounced like the 'oo' in 'food' but with the lips relaxed rather than rounded. It is one of the five basic Japanese vowels. The sound is short and somewhat compressed — Japanese 'u' is more centralized than the English 'oo'.
う sits at the middle of the vowel sequence あいうえお and anchors the う-row (く, す, つ, ぬ, ふ…). It often appears as a vowel-lengthener: when written after お or う, it usually just holds the previous vowel for an extra beat (ありがとう, ほうき).
How to write う
Trace う 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, slightly curved horizontal mark at the top — like a small accent or dot above the body.
A flowing curve that begins at the upper left, dips to the lower middle, and sweeps to the right with a gentle upward tail. Keep it smooth, not angular — the bottom curve is う's defining feature.
Origin
Hiragana う evolved from the kanji 宇 (u) — “house” or “universe.” The original character's roof radical (宀) flattened into the top dot, while the lower half curved into the sweeping bottom stroke that defines う today.
Common words starting with う
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing う 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.