Fu (kana)


, in hiragana, or in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is made in four strokes, while the katakana in one. It represents the phoneme, although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is, which is why it is romanized fu in Hepburn romanization instead of hu. Written with a dakuten, they both represent a "bu" sound, and written with handakuten they both represent a "pu" sound.
The katakana フ is frequently combined with other vowels to represent sounds in foreign words. For example, the word "file" is written in Japanese as ファイル, with ファ representing a non-native sound, fa.
In certain Okinawan writing systems, ふ/フ can be written as ふぁ,ふぃ, ふぇ to make both fa, fi, and fe sounds as well as representing the sounds hwa, hwi, and hwe. In the Ryukyu University system, fa/hwa is written using the wa kana instead, ふゎ/フヮ. In the Ainu language the katakana with a handakuten プ can be written as a small ㇷ゚ to represent a final p sound. In the Sakhalin dialect, フ without a handakuten can be written as small ㇷ to represent a final h sound after an u sound.
FormsRōmajiHiraganaKatakanaExample words
Normal f-
fu
  • ふゆ fuyu 冬 winter
  • ふえる fueru 増える to grow/increase
  • ふつう futsū 普通 normal
  • ふみきり fumikiri 踏み切り level crossing
  • ふとん futon 布団 quilt/blanket
  • ふるえる furueru 震える to shake
  • フランス furansu France
Normal f-fuu
ふう, ふぅ
ふー
フウ, フゥ
フー

  • ふゆ fuyu 冬 winter
  • ふえる fueru 増える to grow/increase
  • ふつう futsū 普通 normal
  • ふみきり fumikiri 踏み切り level crossing
  • ふとん futon 布団 quilt/blanket
  • ふるえる furueru 震える to shake
  • フランス furansu France
Addition dakuten b-bu
  • はんぶん hanbun 半分 half
  • かぶ kabu 株 share/stump
  • ぶし bushi 武士 samurai
  • ハーブ hābu herb
Addition dakuten b-buu
ぶう, ぶぅ
ぶー
ブウ, ブゥ
ブー

  • はんぶん hanbun 半分 half
  • かぶ kabu 株 share/stump
  • ぶし bushi 武士 samurai
  • ハーブ hābu herb
Addition handakuten p-pu
  • きっぷ kippu 切符 stamp
  • おんぷ ompu 音符 note
Addition handakuten p-puu
ぷう, ぷぅ
ぷー
プウ, プゥ
プー

  • きっぷ kippu 切符 stamp
  • おんぷ ompu 音符 note

Stroke order

Other communicative representations