Hiragana · t row
つ (tsu): hiragana stroke order and pronunciation
つ is the hiragana for tsu, the u sound of the t row. It is written with one stroke. Its katakana twin is ツ (tsu).
- Romaji
- tsu
- Strokes
- 1
- Listen
- Play tsu
How to say tsu
Tip: 'ts' as in 'cats' + 'oo'
Closest English: 'tsoo'. Listen and mimic — your mouth learns faster than your eye.
つ in a word
The course introduces つ with つき (moon).
The t row
The t row keeps one consonant and runs through the five vowels, so つ differs from its neighbours only in the vowel. Reading the row as a set fixes the pattern:
Course words written with つ
6 words from the beginner word lists use つ. Each links to the list it belongs to.
つ in a sentence
From the beginner stories, where つ turns up in running text rather than on its own.
「げつようびは あしただ。」
"Monday is tomorrow." from The day off
ぼくは えきで ユミを まつ。
I wait for Yumi at the station. from Two o'clock at the station
Rules that involve つ
Dakuten — the voicing mark
Two small strokes (゛) on a kana voice it: the shape stays the same but your vocal cords buzz. You'll meet 5 of these in the k→g row.
- か → がvoiced k becomes g
- き → ぎvoiced k becomes g
Small っ — the silent beat
A SMALL っ is not a sound of its own — it is a one-beat pause that doubles the consonant after it. きっぷ is ki-(pause)-pu, three beats, and the p lands hard. It is written at half size, and telling っ from つ is the whole skill: きつ is 'kitsu', きっ is 'kit-'.
- きっぷticket (one held beat before the ぷ)
- きつねfox (full-size つ, so you say 'tsu')
Built from つ
With dakuten
- づzu
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 つ 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.