Cursive R (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital R in Cursive

1. Start with a small hook. Put your pencil on the left, a little below the top line, and curl a short hook up to the right.
2. Pull down the stem. From the top line, draw a long slanted stroke down to the baseline, just like the start of a cursive P.
3. Retrace and make the bowl. Go back up the stem to the top line, then curve over to the right and round down into a bowl above the midline.
4. Curl a loop at the stem. Bring the bowl back to the stem at the midline and make a tiny loop there. This little twist is what turns a P into an R.
5. Kick out the leg. From the loop, draw the leg down and to the right to the baseline, then round it up at the end so it can join the next letter.

How to Write a Lowercase r in Cursive

1. Start on the baseline. Begin where the previous letter ended, or on the baseline if r is the first letter of the word.
2. Go up to a point. Make a slanted upstroke that ends just above the dashed midline. Pause there so the top forms a small, neat point.
3. Draw the shoulder. From the point, make a short stroke to the right that stays level with the midline. This flat shoulder is the part most people leave out.
4. Come down to the baseline. From the end of the shoulder, pull a slanted stroke down to the baseline.
5. Exit to the right. Round off at the baseline with a small curve and swing up toward the next letter.

Common Mistakes With Cursive R

The lowercase r causes most of the trouble with this letter. These are the slips to look out for.

• Skipping the shoulder. Without the flat step at the top, the lowercase r turns into an i without a dot, or a sharp v. Draw the shoulder every time.
• Making the r too tall. The point only rises a little above the midline. If it reaches higher, the r can look like a small s.
• Rounding it like a printed r. A hooked, printed-style r doesn't join well in cursive. Keep the point and the flat shoulder instead.
• Forgetting the loop on the capital. Without the small loop where the bowl meets the stem, the capital R looks like a P with an extra line.
• A stiff leg. The leg of the capital R should curve and turn up at the baseline. A straight, flat leg leaves nothing to join from.

How the Cursive Letter R Connects

In the traditional style, both forms of R join the next letter. The capital R's leg turns up at the baseline and carries straight on, as in Ruby and Ryan, so you don't need to lift your pencil after it.

Joining into a lowercase r is smooth when the connecting stroke from the previous letter rises straight to the point of the r. In carrot, the double r is two points and two shoulders in a row, so keep the second one the same size as the first.

After o, w, v and b the join leaves at the midline, and the r is one of the trickiest letters to reach from there. The bridge runs across and ends right at the point, with no dip in between. Look at bread and orange to see how short that bridge is.

Copy and Paste Cursive R Symbols

These are Unicode symbols, not real handwriting. They look like script and paste into most apps, but each one is a separate character, so they won't join the way real cursive does. Use them for names, bios and captions.

• ℛℴ𝓈ℯCopy
• ℛℯ𝓁𝒶𝓍Copy
• ℛ𝒾𝓈ℯ 𝒰𝓅Copy
• ℛ𝒶𝒾𝓃Copy

Words That Start With R

Writing the lowercase r inside real words is the best way to remember the shoulder. Try the words with a double r once the short ones feel easy.

• Short words: run, red, rat, rug, rib, row, ray, rip
• Longer words: rabbit, rainbow, rocket, ribbon, river, robot, ruler, rescue
• Double r and middle r: carrot, berry, mirror, sorry, bread, orange, story, purple
• Names and places: Ruby, Ryan, Rose, Rachel, Rome, Russia, Rwanda, Richmond

Words with or, like for, born and story, are good r practice, because the join from the o arrives high and has to land exactly on the r's point.