Cursive L (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital L in Cursive

1. Start below the top line. Put your pencil on the left, about halfway between the top line and the dashed midline. Draw a gentle curve to the right that rises as it goes.
2. Loop over the top. Keep climbing until you touch the top line, then curve over to the left and come back down, crossing your first stroke. This makes a fairly round loop.
3. Slant down to the baseline. Pull a long stroke down and to the left at the same slant as your other letters, ending just above the baseline.
4. Make the small bottom loop. Curve out to the left, round off on the baseline and come back to the right, so a small loop lies flat on the line.
5. Finish with a wave. Carry the stroke along the baseline in a soft wave that dips and then rises at the end. In a word, that rising end becomes the join.

How to Write a Lowercase l in Cursive

1. Start on the baseline. Begin at the end of the previous letter, or on the baseline if l starts the word.
2. Make a long upstroke. Swing up and to the right in one smooth, slanted line that reaches the top line. Don't stop at the midline.
3. Turn a narrow loop. At the top line, curve over to the left and start coming down. The loop should be slim, a little narrower than a lowercase e is wide.
4. Pull straight down. Draw a straight slanted stroke down to the baseline, crossing your upstroke around the midline.
5. Exit to the right. Round off at the baseline and sweep up toward the next letter.

Common Mistakes With Cursive L

Cursive L is simple to describe but easy to wobble. These are the habits that make it messy.

• A short lowercase l. If the loop stops at the midline, the l becomes a cursive e. It has to reach the top line every time.
• A fat loop. A wide, round loop on the lowercase l makes words look bubbly and hard to read. Keep the loop narrow and tilted with the slant.
• Skipping the bottom loop on the capital. Without the small loop on the baseline, the capital L looks unfinished. Make it small and keep it on the line.
• Dropping below the baseline. The wave at the bottom of the capital should sit on the baseline, not sink under it.
• Uneven double l. In words like ball and hill, the two loops should match in height and width. Write them at a steady pace so the second one doesn't shrink.

How Cursive L Joins Other Letters

In the traditional style shown here, both the capital and the lowercase L join the letter that follows. The capital's wave runs along the baseline and climbs straight into the next letter, as in Leo and Lily.

The lowercase l is one of the easiest letters to join into. The stroke from the previous letter simply keeps rising until it becomes the tall loop. Look at yellow: the double l is two identical loops in a row, and the second one starts right where the first one leaves the baseline.

After o, w, v and b the join leaves at the midline, so it has to climb a little further to reach the top of the l. You can see it in bowl, where the w hands over to the l without dropping back to the baseline first.

Copy and Paste Cursive L Symbols

These are Unicode symbols, not real handwriting. They look like script and paste into most apps, but every symbol is a separate character, so they won't flow together the way pen strokes do. They work well for names, bios and captions.

• ℒℴ𝓋ℯCopy
• ℒ𝓊𝒸𝓀𝓎Copy
• ℒ𝒾𝓋ℯ ℒ𝒶𝓊ℊ𝒽Copy
• ℒℯ𝓂ℴ𝓃Copy

Words That Start With L

Practice the lowercase l in words with double letters and in the middle of words, where the height of the loop matters most.

• Short words: lap, leg, lid, lip, log, low, lot, let
• Longer words: lemon, little, laugh, ladder, library, lizard, lucky, lovely
• Double l and middle l: yellow, hello, ball, hill, bowl, apple, silly, balloon
• Names and places: Leo, Lily, Lucy, Liam, London, Lisbon, Lagos, Lima

The pound sign £ comes from a capital L, short for the Latin word libra. Writing it is a fun way to practice the capital L's bottom loop.