Cursive V (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital V in Cursive

1. Start with a hook. Begin just below the top line on the left and make a small curl up to touch the top line.
2. Slant down to the baseline. Pull a long stroke down and slightly left at the same slant as your other capitals.
3. Turn at the bottom. Make a narrow turn on the baseline. It should be tighter than the bottom of a U but still slightly rounded, not a sharp corner.
4. Climb to the top line. Swing back up to the right, opening the V wider at the top than at the bottom, until you reach the top line.
5. Finish with a small curl. At the top, flick the end of the stroke over to the right in a short curl. That's where the capital V ends.

How to Write a Lowercase v in Cursive

1. Start at the midline. Coming from the previous letter, or from a small entry stroke, arrive at the dashed midline.
2. Pull down to the baseline. Make a slanted downstroke to the baseline.
3. Round the bottom. Turn smoothly on the baseline. In this style the lowercase v has a rounded base, almost like a narrow u.
4. Rise to the midline. Swing back up to the right and stop at the midline, level with where you started.
5. Add the bridge. Finish with a small curl to the right at the midline. This bridge is what joins the v to the next letter.

Common Mistakes With Cursive V

Most cursive v trouble comes from the ending. Here's what to look out for.

• Dropping back to the baseline. If you finish the lowercase v with an exit at the bottom, it turns into a u. The v ends high, at the midline.
• Skipping the bridge. Without the little curl at the top, the next letter has nothing to hang from and the word breaks apart.
• A wide flat bottom. Too much curve at the base makes the v look like a u with a tail. Keep the turn narrow.
• Two straight lines. A printed-style V with a sharp point looks out of place next to curvy cursive letters.
• Forgetting the capital's hook. The starting curl is what makes the capital V look finished. Without it the letter looks like a big lowercase v.
• Letting the bridge sag. A bridge that droops toward the baseline makes the next letter start too low.

How Cursive V Connects to Other Letters

In this traditional style the capital V does not join the next letter. It ends with a curl at the top line, far from where the next letter starts, so you lift your pencil, as in Vera and Venice.

The lowercase v is a midline-ending letter, like o, w and b. After the bridge, the next letter starts from the midline rather than the baseline, so an a or an e hangs off that small curl. Look at seven, where the v leads straight into the e.

Going into a v from an o works the same way in reverse: the bridge from the o glides across at the midline and drops into the downstroke of the v, as you can see in love.

Copy and Paste Cursive V Symbols

These V symbols are Unicode characters styled to look like handwriting. They paste into nearly any app, but each is a single character, so they won't join together the way real cursive does.

• 𝒱𝒾𝒷ℯ𝓈Copy
• 𝒱ℯ𝓁𝓋ℯ𝓉Copy
• 𝒱𝒾𝓃𝓉𝒶ℊℯCopy
• 𝒱ℯ𝓇𝓎 𝒞ℴℴ𝓁Copy

Words That Start With V

Practice the v in words where it sits before vowels, because that's where the bridge matters most.

• Short words: van, vet, vat, via, vow, vine, vase, vote
• Longer words: violin, velvet, visit, voice, valley, village, volcano, vacation
• Middle v: seven, river, never, over, five, cave, lover, given
• Names and places: Vera, Victor, Violet, Vincent, Venice, Vienna, Vermont, Vancouver

The pairs ve and va are the most useful drills. Write them ten times in a row and the bridge will start to feel natural.