Cursive S (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital S in Cursive

1. Start low on the left. Put your pencil on the baseline, a little to the left of where the letter will sit.
2. Swing up to the top line. Draw one long, smooth upstroke that leans to the right and reaches all the way to the top line. This stroke sets the slant for the whole letter.
3. Make a narrow loop. At the top, curve over to the left and come back down, crossing your upstroke just below the top line. Keep the loop slim, about as wide as a lowercase e.
4. Drop into the big curve. Keep going down and out to the right, then round off into a full belly that sits on the baseline. This curve is the widest part of the S.
5. Finish with a small hook. Sweep back to the left along the baseline and curl the end up slightly toward your first stroke. If a word continues, carry the stroke on into the next letter.

How to Write a Lowercase s in Cursive

1. Start on the baseline. Begin where the previous letter left off, or on the baseline if s is the first letter of the word.
2. Go up to a point. Make a slanted upstroke that ends just above the dashed midline. Stop there and make a small, sharp point. Don't round it off.
3. Come down the right side. From the point, curve down and out to the right in a rounded bulge that fills the space between the midline and the baseline.
4. Close at the baseline. Bring the curve back to the left along the baseline until it touches your upstroke. The bottom should look closed and full.
5. Exit to the right. If another letter follows, swing out from the bottom with a short connecting stroke that rises toward the next letter.

Common Mistakes With Cursive S

Most trouble with cursive S comes from treating it like the printed letter. These are the slips teachers see most often.

• Starting at the top. The printed S starts at the top, but the cursive capital starts on the baseline with an upstroke. Starting at the top makes the loop come out backwards.
• A fat top loop. A wide, round loop at the top makes the capital S look like a cursive L or a squashed G. Keep it narrow and tilted with the slant.
• Making the lowercase s too tall. The point should only just rise above the midline. If it reaches the top line, the letter reads as a small capital.
• Rounding the point. Without the sharp tip, the lowercase s can look like an o with a tail. Pause for a split second at the top so the point stays crisp.
• Leaving the bottom open. If the curve doesn't come back to meet the upstroke, the s looks unfinished and is hard to read in the middle of a word.
• Changing the slant. The upstroke and the curve should lean the same way. A wobbly slant is the main reason an S looks "off" even when every stroke is right.

How Cursive S Connects to Other Letters

In the traditional style shown here, both forms of S join the letter that follows. After the capital S, keep your pencil down at the end of the hook and carry the stroke straight into the next letter, as in Sam or Sun.

Joining into a lowercase s is where people hesitate. The connecting stroke from the previous letter runs up and ends exactly at the point of the s, so the upstroke and the join become one line. Look at the double s in glass: the first s flows from its closed bottom straight up into the point of the second.

After letters that finish high, like o, v, w and b, there's no stroke coming from the baseline. Instead the join leaves at the midline and dips just slightly into the point of the s, as you can see in rose. Keep that bridge short or the s will start to float.

Copy and Paste Cursive S Symbols

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

• 𝒮𝓊𝓃Copy
• 𝒮𝓌ℯℯ𝓉Copy
• 𝒮𝓀𝓎Copy
• 𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓎 𝒮ℴ𝒻𝓉Copy

Words That Start With S

Writing real words is the fastest way to get comfortable with the s join. Start with short ones, then move to words with a double s or an s in the middle.

• Short words: sun, sad, sit, sea, see, sky, six, say
• Longer words: smile, sister, summer, school, simple, sweet, story, snake
• Double s and middle s: glass, class, kiss, dress, rose, basket, music, inside
• Names and places: Sam, Sara, Sophie, Samuel, Sydney, Spain, Seattle, Saturday

Practice capital S with names. It's the only time most people write it, so names like Sara and Samuel are the most useful drills.