Cursive U

Cursive u is n turned upside down: two valleys where n has two arches. It is also the movement almost every other letter starts with.

Cursive capital U and lowercase u written on a four-line school ruling

Written in the traditional US school model — the looped, joined cursive of the Zaner-Bloser and D'Nealian copybooks, which is the model every sheet on this site is set in.

How to write cursive u

  1. Swing up from the baseline to the midline.
  2. Come down to the baseline and curve back up to the midline.
  3. Come down to the baseline a second time, the valley the same width as the first.
  4. Exit to the right into the next letter.

The capital U

Capital U is the same letter at full height, opening with a wave at the top line and coming down to the baseline twice.

Where it goes wrong

Turn it over. Round the valleys into arches and u is n — of every pair in cursive, that is the one a reader gets wrong most often.

Print the u practice sheet

Printable cursive u practice sheet — first page

What is on the sheet

  1. Lowercase u
    uuu
    Write three letters u, exactly as in the model. Trace the pale row first, then write the empty rows on your own.
  2. Capital U
    U U U
    Write the capital U three times, with a space between them. Capitals fill the full height from the baseline to the top line.
  3. Words: under and unusual
    under unusual
    Write both words as in the model, with a clear space between them. Keep every u the same size and the same slant.
  4. Word: museum
    museum
    Write the word in one movement where you can, then go back for any dots and crossbars.

Print at 100% on US Letter — not “fit to page”. The ruling is classroom size, and scaling the page down makes every letter the wrong size; the 10 cm scale at the foot of the sheet is there to check against. Every block gives you a model row in full ink, a pale row to trace over and empty ruled rows of your own.

All twenty-six on one page: the cursive alphabet chart.

The other letters

Check your u against the model

Write the sheet by hand, photograph it, and our AI scores letter formation, spacing and slant against the same model you traced.

Check your handwriting free

Undercurve Family: u and w

In the course, u is taught with the letters that share its movement — that is where to go once the shape itself is no longer the problem.

Undercurve Family: u and w The full cursive course