Ku (hiragana: く, katakana: ク) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent 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 mora represented, to in initial positions and varying between and 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 .
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.
FormsRōmajiHiraganaKatakanaNormal k-(か行 ka-gyō)kuくクkuu, kwukūくう, くぅくークウ, クゥクーAddition dakuten g-(が行 ga-gyō)guぐグguu, gwugūぐう, ぐぅぐーグウ, グゥグー
Other additional forms+Form A (kw-)RomajiHiraganaKatakanakwaくぁ, くゎクァ, クヮkwiくぃクィ(kwu)(くぅ)(クゥ)kweくぇクェkwoくぉクォ+Form B (gw-)RomajiHiraganaKatakanagwaぐぁ, ぐゎグァ, グヮgwiぐぃグィ(gwu)(ぐぅ)(グゥ)gweぐぇグェgwoぐぉグォ
Stroke order 1 2
Other communicative representations
Braille forms く / ク in Japanese Braille く / ク ku ぐ / グ gu くう / クー kū ぐう / グー gū Other kana based on Braille く きゅ / キュ kyu ぎゅ / ギュ gyu きゅう / キュー kyū ぎゅう / ギュー gyū
Computer encodings
References