mu / ム
The middle of the M row — “mu” in two strokes. Same sound as hiragana む, seen in mood, movie, and album.
Pronunciation
The character ム represents the syllable 'mu', identical in pronunciation to hiragana む. Common in loanword endings (-mu) — game, home, system, album, volume — and as a standalone word in some compounds.
ム shares hiragana む's sound — a rounded “mu.” It opens loanwords like ムード (mood) and ムービー (movie), and ends a great many more: ゲーム (game), システム (system), アルバム (album). Its shape is a fragment of the kanji 牟.
How to write ム
Trace ム 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 stroke from the top centre, sweeping down to the lower left, then curving back along the bottom toward the right.
A short diagonal from the upper right, slanting down to meet it — the small tick that closes ム.
Origin
Katakana ム comes from the kanji 牟 (mu). The monks kept its upper element — the angular shape ム carries today — and dropped the rest.
Common words starting with ム
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ム 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.