Hiragana · m row
む (mu): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
む is the hiragana for mu, the u sound of the m row. It is written with 3 strokes. Its katakana twin is ム (mu).
- Romaji
- mu
- Strokes
- 3
- Listen
- Play mu
How to write む, stroke by stroke
Each frame adds one stroke. The number sits where the stroke starts; strokes run left to right and top to bottom.
- stroke 1
- stroke 2
- stroke 3
How to say mu
Tip: like 'moo' (clipped)
In words
The course does not attach an example word to む when it introduces it; you will meet it in the lessons that follow.
The m row
The m row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so む differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with む
2 words from the beginner word lists use む. Each links to the list it belongs to.
- のむ飲むnomuto drinkFood and drink vocabulary
- むっつ六つmuttsusixNumbers
む in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where む turns up in running text rather than on its own.
ぼくは えきの みせで おちゃを のむ。
I have a tea at the station shop. from Two o'clock at the station
ぼくは パンを ふたつ たべて、おちゃを のむ。
I eat two pieces of bread and drink tea. from The day off
Built from む
The same sound in katakana
Stroke-order data from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
Practice this in Open Lingo
The Open Lingo Japanese course teaches む with tracing practice, a listening drill and spaced review, then uses it in real words within the same lesson.
Keep going
- ChartKatakana chartAll 46 basic katakana plus voiced and yōon combinations, with romaji, stroke-order diagrams, example loanwords and audio.
- Word listGreetings and polite phrasesEssential Japanese greetings and polite phrases for beginners, with hiragana, romaji, meaning and audio, taken from the Open Lingo course.
- Word listNumbersJapanese numbers for beginners: Sino-Japanese いち, に, さん, the native ひとつ, ふたつ counting set, and hundreds, thousands and 万, with audio.
- ToolNumbers 1 to 100 and converterJapanese numbers 0 to 100 in kana, kanji and romaji, a converter up to 999,999, and the rules for 4, 7, 9, sound-changing hundreds and 万.