Cursive Y (Capital & Lowercase)

How to Write a Capital Y in Cursive

1. Start with a hook. Begin just below the top line on the left and curl up to touch the top line.
2. Make the cup. Slant down and round off a little above the baseline. The cup of the capital Y doesn't need to sit on the line.
3. Climb to the top line. Swing up to the right until you reach the top line, parallel to the first stroke.
4. Drop the long stem. Come straight back down over that stroke, through the baseline and all the way to the dotted descender line.
5. Loop and close. Curve to the left at the bottom, then swing back up and cross the stem right at the baseline. Finish with an exit stroke to the right.

How to Write a Lowercase y in Cursive

1. Start at the midline. Arrive at the dashed midline from the previous letter or a short entry stroke.
2. Make a small cup. Pull down, round off near the baseline and swing back up to the midline, just like the first half of a u.
3. Go below the line. Retrace down and keep going past the baseline to the descender line, keeping the same slant.
4. Loop to the left. Turn left at the bottom in a slim loop and come back up toward the baseline.
5. Cross at the baseline. Close the loop where it meets the stem on the baseline and exit to the right, ready for the next letter.

Common Mistakes With Cursive Y

Most problems with the cursive y happen below the baseline. Here's what to watch.

• A loop that closes too low. If the loop crosses below the baseline, the y floats and the next letter starts in the wrong place. Close it on the baseline.
• A fat loop. A wide, round tail makes the y look like a g. Keep the loop slim and tilted.
• A short tail. The stem should reach the descender line. A stubby tail makes the y look like a u.
• A pointed cup. A sharp bottom on the first part turns the y into a v with a tail. Round it like a u.
• Writing the capital Y like a lowercase y. The capital starts with a hook and reaches the top line. Without the hook it's just a big lowercase letter.
• Swinging the tail the wrong way. The loop always turns left, back under the cup. A right-hand loop looks like a backward letter.

How Cursive Y Connects to Other Letters

In this traditional style the capital Y joins the next letter. The loop closes at the baseline and the exit stroke runs straight into what follows, as in York and Yara.

The lowercase y also joins on both sides. The connecting stroke from the previous letter rises into the cup, and the exit comes from the point where the loop crosses the baseline, as you can see in crayon.

After o, w, v and b the bridge arrives at the midline and drops straight into the cup of the y. Look at boy: the bridge from the o is short and level, and the y's loop finishes the word.

Copy and Paste Cursive Y Symbols

These Y symbols are Unicode characters that look like script handwriting. They paste into bios, chats and captions, but each symbol stands alone, so they won't join the way real cursive does.

• 𝒴ℴ𝓊𝓇𝓈Copy
• 𝒴𝒶𝓎Copy
• 𝒴ℴ𝓊𝓃ℊCopy
• 𝒴ℯ𝓈 𝒫𝓁ℯ𝒶𝓈ℯCopy

Words That Start With Y

Since y can be a consonant or a vowel, it shows up at the start, middle and end of words. Practice all three positions.

• Short words: yes, yet, yak, yam, you, yard, yell, yawn
• Longer words: yellow, yogurt, yesterday, yummy, yearly, youth, yodel, yonder
• Middle and ending y: crayon, boy, happy, mayor, party, buyer, story, kayak
• Names and places: Yara, Yusuf, Yolanda, Yvonne, York, Yemen, Yukon, Yosemite

Words with double tails, like yummy or happy, are a good test. Keep every loop slim so the tails don't run into each other.