fu / フ
The middle of the H row — read “fu,” not “hu.” A single stroke. It opens fork, France, fruit, and fashion.
Pronunciation
The character フ represents the syllable 'fu', identical in pronunciation to hiragana ふ. The Japanese 'f' is bilabial — gentle lip contact, not lip-and-teeth as in English. Common in loanwords for fork, France, fruit, golf, and many proper nouns.
フ matches hiragana ふ, and it's read “fu” — a soft sound made with the lips barely touching, between English “f” and “h.” One stroke makes it quick to write. It opens loanwords like フォーク (fork), フランス (France), フルーツ (fruit), ファッション (fashion).
How to write フ
Trace フ 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 single stroke: start at the upper left, draw across to the right, then turn and sweep down to the lower left. One motion — and remember it's read “fu,” not “hu.”
Origin
Katakana フ comes from the kanji 不 (fu, “not” / “un-”). The opening strokes of 不 were pared down to the single bend of フ.
Common words starting with フ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing フ 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.