Ku (kana)

ku
hiragana katakana
transliteration	ku
translit. with dakuten	gu
translit. with handakuten	(ngu)
hiragana origin	久
katakana origin	久
spelling kana	クラブのク (Kurabu no "ku")
unicode	U+304F, U+30AF
braille

く, in hiragana, or ク in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [ku͍], and their shapes come from the kanji 久.

This kana may have a dakuten added, transforming it into ぐ in hiragana, グ in katakana, and gu in Hepburn romanization. The dakuten's addition also changes the sound of the syllable represented, to [ɡu͍] in initial positions, and varying between [ŋu͍] and [ɣu͍] in the middle of words. A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ku in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋu͍].

In the Ainu language, the katakana ク can be written as small ㇰ, representing a final k sound as in アイヌイタㇰ Ainu itak (Ainu language). This was developed along with other extended katakana to represent sounds in Ainu that are not found in standard Japanese katakana.

Forms	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal k- (か行 ka-gyō)	ku	く	ク
	kuu kū	くう, くぅ くー	クウ, クゥ クー
Addition dakuten g- (が行 ga-gyō)	gu	ぐ	グ
	guu gū	ぐう, ぐぅ ぐー	グウ, グゥ グー

Other additional forms
Form A (kw-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana kwa くぁ/くゎ クァ/クヮ kwi くぃ/くゐ クィ/クヰ kwe くぇ クェ kwo くぉ クォ	Form B (gw-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana gwa ぐぁ/ぐゎ グァ/グヮ gwi ぐぃ/ぐゐ グィ/グヰ gwe ぐぇ グェ gwo ぐぉ グォ

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing く

Stroke order in writing ク

Other communicative representations

In Japanese Braille, く or ク is represented as:

⠩

The Wabun code for く or ク is ・・・－.