KU in hiragana: く

The syllable ‘ku’ in hiragana is written く.

く ‘ku’ hiragana stroke order

く has just one stroke:

• It starts leftwards and downwards, then rightwards and downwards.

く ‘ku’ hiragana mnemonic

See also: Making mnemonics

This image should help you to remember how to write ‘ta’ in hiragana by associating the letters ku with the shape of く. Remember that the English words used here are not a pronunciation guide. They help you to remember how to write く, not how to say it.

To learn pronunciation you need to get a lot of listening and speaking practice done. Online services like JapanesePod 101 can help with that.

く is a bird going “coo”.

く ‘ku’ hiragana origins

く is derived from the kanji 久 (ku) . This is pronounced jiǔ in Mandarin Chinese (hanzi) and kwu in Korean (hanja).

Useful links

• Kana Pict-o-Graphix: Mnemonics for Japanese Hiragana and Katakana
• Let’s Learn Hiragana: First Book of Japanese Writing
• Hiragana mnemonics on asahi-net.or.jp
• Hiragana mnemonics on japanese.gatech.edu
• Japanese Hiragana - Omniglot