Tsu (kana)

Template:Redirect-distinguish Template:Redirect-distinguish Template:Refimprove Template:Short description Template:Italic dab Template:Short description Template:Template other Tsu (hiragana: つ, katakana: ツ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both are phonemically , reflected in the Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki Romanization tu, although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is , reflected in the Hepburn romanization tsu.

The small kana っ/ッ, known as sokuon, are identical but somewhat smaller. They are mainly used to indicate consonant gemination and commonly used at the end of lines of dialogue in fictional works as a symbol for a glottal stop.

The dakuten forms づ, ヅ, usually pronounced the same as the dakuten forms of the su kana in most dialects (see yotsugana), are uncommon. They are primarily used for indicating a voiced consonant in the middle of a compound word (see rendaku), and they can never begin a word.

In the Ainu language, it can be written with a handakuten (which can be entered into a computer as either one character (ツ゚) or two combined characters (ツ゜) to represent the sound , which is interchangeable with the katakana ト゚.

The katakana form has become popular as an emoticon in the Western world due to its resemblance to a smiling face and as part of a "shrug" emoticon, known alternatively as Shruggie, rendered as:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

Forms	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal ts- (た行 ta-gyō)	tsu	つ	ツ
	tsuu, tswu tsū	つう, つぅ つー	ツウ, ツゥ ツー
Addition dakuten d/z- (だ行 da-gyō)	zu, dzu	づ	ヅ
	zuu, zwu zū, dzū	づう, づぅ づー	ヅウ, ヅゥ ヅー

Other additional forms
Form A (ts-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana tsa, tswa つぁ ツァ tswa つゎ ツヮ tsi, tswi つぃ ツィ (tswu) (つぅ) (ツゥ) tse, tswe つぇ ツェ tso, tswo つぉ ツォ tsya つゃ ツャ tsyu つゅ ツュ tsye つぃぇ ツィェ tsyo つょ ツョ	Form B (z-) Romaji Hiragana Katakana dza, dzwa づぁ ヅァ zwa づゎ ヅヮ dzi, dzwi, zwi づぃ ヅィ (zwu) (づぅ) (ヅゥ) dze, zwe づぇ ヅェ dzo, zwo づぉ ヅォ zya, dzya づゃ ヅャ zyu, dzyu づゅ ヅュ zye, dzye づぃぇ ヅィェ zyo, dzyo づょ ヅョ

• ヅァ (dza), ヅェ (dze) and ヅォ (dzo) are used in gairaigos; these pronunciations are not same as ズァ (zwa), ズェ (zwe) and ズォ (zwo).

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing つ Stroke order in writing つ

Stroke order in writing ツ Stroke order in writing ツ

File:つ-bw.png

Stroke order in writing つ

File:ツ-bw.png

Stroke order in writing ツ

Other communicative representations

• Full Braille representation

つ / ツ in Japanese Braille
っ / ッ sokuon	つ / ツ tsu	づ / ヅ zu/du	つう / ツー tsū	づう / ヅー zū/dū	Other kana based on Braille つ
					ちゅ / チュ chu	ぢゅ / ヂュ ju/dyu	ちゅう / チュー chū	ぢゅう / ヂュー jū/dyū
Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

• Computer encodings

See also

• Sokuon
• Dakuten and Handakuten
• Kanji
• Chōonpu