du / ヅ
The rare “zu” — ツ with a dakuten. It sounds exactly like ズ, and modern Japanese writes ズ in its place.
Pronunciation
The character ヅ represents a syllable pronounced 'zu' (identical to ズ) but is essentially never used in modern Japanese. Loanwords with a 'du' sound use ドゥ (do + small u) instead. ヅ appears only in a few archaic or specialized words.
ヅ is ツ (tsu) plus the dakuten ゛. It's pronounced “zu,” identical to ズ — so the sound is spelled ズ today, and ヅ is rare. Like ヂ, it survives mainly in a few native compounds (rendaku), and you won't meet it in loanwords.
How to write ヅ
Trace ヅ 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 ツ exactly: two short marks along the top, then a long stroke sweeping down from the upper right to the lower left.
Add the dakuten (゛): two small ticks at the upper right — strokes 4 and 5 — sitting above the body.
Origin
Katakana ヅ shares its shape with ツ, commonly traced to the kanji 川 (tsu, “river”). The dakuten ゛ voices it to “zu” — now almost always written ズ instead.
Common words starting with ヅ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヅ 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 katakana you’ve learned with spaced-repetition flashcards — the fastest way to make them stick.