Fu (kana)

fu
hiragana katakana
transliteration	fu, hu
hiragana origin	不
katakana origin	不

ふ, in hiragana, or フ 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 /hu͍/, although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is [ɸu͍], which is why it is romanized fu in Hepburn romanization instead of hu. Written with a dakuten (ぶ, ブ), they both represent a "bu" sound, and written with handakuten (ぷ, プ) 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 (fairu), 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 (ウㇷ uh).

Forms	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana	Example words (with kanji)
Normal f- (は行 ha-gyō)	fu	ふ	フ	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
	fuu fū	ふう, ふぅ ふー	フウ, フゥ フー
Addition dakuten b- (ば行 ba-gyō)	bu	ぶ	ブ	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
	buu bū	ぶう, ぶぅ ぶー	ブウ, ブゥ ブー
Addition handakuten p- (ぱ行 pa-gyō)	pu	ぷ	プ	きっぷ kippu 切符 stamp おんぷ ompu 音符 note
	puu pū	ぷう, ぷぅ ぷー	プウ, プゥ プー

Other additional forms
Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana Form (f-) Fa/Hwa ふぁ/ふゎ ファ/フヮ ファール fāru foul Fi/Hwi ふぃ フィ フィンランド finrando Finland Fu ふ フ フリー furī Free Fe/Hwe ふぇ フェ フェルト feruto felt Fo ふぉ フォ フォード fōdo Ford

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing ふ

Stroke order in writing フ

Stroke order in writing ふ

Stroke order in writing フ

Other representations

• Computer encodings

Character	ふ		フ		ﾌ		ㇷ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER FU		KATAKANA LETTER FU		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER FU		KATAKANA LETTER SMALL FU
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12405	U+3075	12501	U+30D5	65420	U+FF8C	12791	U+31F7
UTF-8	227 129 181	E3 81 B5	227 131 149	E3 83 95	239 190 140	EF BE 8C	227 135 183	E3 87 B7
Numeric character reference	ふ	ふ	フ	フ	ﾌ	ﾌ	ㇷ	ㇷ
Shift JIS	130 211	82 D3	131 116	83 74	204	CC

Character	ぶ		ブ		ぷ		プ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER BU		KATAKANA LETTER BU		HIRAGANA LETTER PU		KATAKANA LETTER PU
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12406	U+3076	12502	U+30D6	12407	U+3077	12503	U+30D7
UTF-8	227 129 182	E3 81 B6	227 131 150	E3 83 96	227 129 183	E3 81 B7	227 131 151	E3 83 97
Numeric character reference	ぶ	ぶ	ブ	ブ	ぷ	ぷ	プ	プ
Shift JIS	130 212	82 D4	131 117	83 75	130 213	82 D5	131 118	83 76

• Braille

ふ / フ in Japanese Braille
ふ / フ fu	ぶ / ブ bu	ぷ / プ pu	ふう / フー fū	ぶう / ブー bū	ぷう / プー pū	Other kana based on Braille ふ
						ひゅ / ヒゅ hyu	びゅ / ビュ byu	ぴゅ / ピュ pyu	ひゅう / ヒュー hyū	びゅう / ビュー byū	ぴゅう / ピュー pyū

• Japanese semaphore