Katakana · vowel row
ウ (u): katakana stroke order and pronunciation
ウ is the katakana for u, the third of the five vowels. It is written with 3 strokes. Its hiragana twin is う (u).
- Romaji
- u
- Strokes
- 3
- Listen
- Play u
How to write ウ, 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 u
Tip: like 'oo' in 'food'
In words
The course does not attach an example word to ウ when it introduces it; you will meet it in the lessons that follow.
The five vowels
Every other kana is one of these five vowels with a consonant in front, so ウ is the sound you hear at the end of the whole u column. Read the five together until each is automatic:
Built from ウ
The same sound in hiragana
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 ウ with tracing practice, a listening drill and spaced review, then uses it in real words within the same lesson.
Keep going
- ChartHiragana chartAll 46 basic hiragana plus dakuten and yōon combinations, each with romaji, stroke-order diagram, a pronunciation tip 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.