Cursive Y

Cursive y is the letter u carried below the line: two valleys, then a descender loop to the left — the same tail g and j end with.

Cursive capital Y and lowercase y 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 y

  1. Swing up from the baseline to the midline.
  2. Come down to the baseline and back up to the midline.
  3. Come straight down through the baseline to the bottom line.
  4. Loop to the left, come back up through the baseline crossing your own stem, and exit to the right.

The capital Y

Capital Y descends: full height above the baseline and a loop below it. J, Y and Z are the only capitals with a full descender.

Where it goes wrong

The top half. Close it into an oval and y reads as a g — below the baseline the two letters are the same stroke.

Print the y practice sheet

Printable cursive y practice sheet — first page
Printable y worksheet, US Letter Printable y worksheet, A4

What is on the sheet

  1. Lowercase y
    yyy
    Write three letters y, exactly as in the model. Trace the pale row first, then write the empty rows on your own.
  2. Capital Y
    Y Y Y
    Write the capital Y three times, with a space between them. Capitals fill the full height from the baseline to the top line.
  3. Words: yesterday and sunny
    yesterday sunny
    Write both words as in the model, with a clear space between them. Keep every y the same size and the same slant.
  4. Word: crayon
    crayon
    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

Cursive F Cursive S Cursive G Cursive J Cursive Z Cursive T Cursive B Cursive R Cursive K Cursive Q Cursive I Cursive L Cursive D Cursive A Cursive H Cursive E Cursive N Cursive M Cursive P Cursive V Cursive C Cursive X Cursive W Cursive O Cursive U

Check your y 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

Tricky Letters: r, s, j, p, y and z

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

Tricky Letters: r, s, j, p, y and z The full cursive course