Cursive H (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital H in Cursive

1. Start with a hook. Begin a little below the top line on the left and curl a small hook up and over to the right until it reaches the top line.
2. Pull the first stem. From the top line, draw a long, straight, slanted stroke down to the baseline. Then lift your pencil.
3. Draw the second stem. Start on the top line to the right of the first stem and pull another slanted stroke down to the baseline, parallel to the first.
4. Start the crossbar. Put your pencil on the second stem, just below the midline.
5. Loop and cross. Draw a small oval loop to the left, around the first stem, then bring the stroke back to the right, across the second stem, and stop just past it.

How to Write a Lowercase h in Cursive

1. Lead in from the baseline. Start on the baseline, or where the previous letter ended, and make a long upstroke toward the top line.
2. Loop at the top line. Curve over to the left at the top line and come back down, crossing your upstroke to form a slim loop.
3. Come down to the baseline. Keep the stroke straight and slanted until it touches the baseline.
4. Build the hump. Go back up the stem a short way, then arch over to the right in a rounded hump that reaches the midline.
5. Come down and exit. Pull the right side of the hump down to the baseline and swing out with a short exit stroke.

Common Mistakes With Cursive H

H is easy to recognize, but a few habits make it messy or turn it into other letters.

• Writing the crossbar straight. A plain line works in print, but the traditional cursive capital H has a small loop in its crossbar. Without it, the letter looks like a print H with a slant.
• Joining the capital H. The crossbar ends in the middle of the letter, so lift your pencil and start the next letter fresh.
• Making the hump too tall. The hump of the lowercase h stops at the midline. Any taller and it competes with the loop.
• Pulling the hump away from the stem. The hump should grow out of the stem. A gap between them makes the h look like an l followed by an n.
• A short loop. The loop must reach the top line. A loop that stops near the midline reads as an e, and the h turns into "en".
• Uneven stems on the capital. Keep both stems at the same slant and the same height, or the H looks like it's falling over.

How Cursive H Connects to Other Letters

The capital H doesn't connect in traditional cursive. The crossbar is the last stroke and ends just past the second stem, so lift your pencil and begin the next letter with its own lead-in, as in Henry or Holly.

The lowercase h joins on both sides. It starts with a long upstroke from the baseline and ends with an exit stroke on the baseline. In school you can see the c swing straight up into the tall loop of the h, then the h's exit rise into the o.

After o, w, v and b, the join leaves at the midline and climbs straight into the loop, as in who. The upstroke is shorter than usual, so make sure the loop still reaches the top line.

Copy and Paste Cursive H Symbols

The script H symbols below are Unicode characters, not handwriting. Paste them into names, bios and posts. They look cursive, but they stay separate and won't join like letters written in pen.

• ℋℯ𝓁𝓁ℴCopy
• ℋ𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎Copy
• ℋℴ𝓃ℯ𝓎Copy
• ℋℴ𝓅ℯCopy

Words That Start With H

H words give you plenty of practice with the loop and the hump. Start with short words, then try ones where h sits in the middle.

• Short words: hat, hen, hop, hug, hot, hit, ham, hand
• Longer words: happy, horse, house, honey, hammer, hiking, heart, helmet
• H in the middle: school, who, fishing, mother, shoe, teacher, ahead, behind
• Names and places: Henry, Holly, Harry, Hannah, Hawaii, Houston, Hungary, Holland

The pairs th, sh and ch are some of the most common h joins in English, in words like the, she and chat. Practice those three until they feel automatic.