hyu / ヒュ
The middle HY combined kana — ヒ plus a small ュ becomes “hyu.” The useful one: it opens human and fuse.
Pronunciation
The compound character ヒュ represents the syllable 'hyu'. Common in loanwords for human, fuse, humanism, and a few other terms.
ヒュ is ヒ (hi) plus a small ュ, read as one syllable, “hyu.” It's the most useful of the set, standing in for the English “hu” in ヒューマン (human), ヒューズ (fuse), ヒューマニズム (humanism). It also evokes a whistling-wind sound in Japanese.
How to write ヒュ
Trace ヒュ 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 ヒ exactly: a short stroke rising to the right, then a long stroke down the left and along the bottom — an L-like base.
Write a small ュ tucked into the lower right at about half height — a miniature ユ (a top-and-right turn, then a base bar).
Origin
Katakana ヒュ combines ヒ — from the kanji 比 (hi) — with a small ュ (reduced ユ, from 由). Together they spell a single “hyu” sound.
Common words starting with ヒュ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ヒュ 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.