| Hiragana Image: | Japanese Hiragana kyokashotai KU.svg |
| Katakana Image: | Japanese Katakana kyokashotai KU.svg |
| Transliteration: | ku |
| Transliteration Dakuten: | gu |
| Transliteration Handakuten: | (ngu) |
| Hiragana Manyogana: | 久 |
| Katakana Manyogana: | 久 |
| Other Manyogana: | 久 九 口 丘 苦 鳩 来 |
| Dakuten Manyogana: | 具 遇 隅 求 愚 虞 |
| Spelling: | クラブのク (Kurabu no "ku") |
く, in hiragana or ク in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent pronounced as /[kɯ]/ 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 pronounced as /[ɡɯ]/ in initial positions and varying between pronounced as /[ŋɯ]/ and pronounced as /[ɣɯ]/ 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 pronounced as /[ŋɯ]/.
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).[1] 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, kwu kū | くう, くぅ くー | クウ, クゥ クー | |
| Addition dakuten g- (が行 ga-gyō) | gu | ぐ | グ |
| guu, gwu gū | ぐう, ぐぅ ぐー | グウ, グゥ グー |
| 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 | |||||