Capital & lowercase · click to copy

Y in Cursive

Capital Y and lowercase y in three cursive styles, plus two fancy variants people often compare them against. Click any letter to copy it, or scroll down for the stroke order if you are writing a cursive Y by hand.

Capital Y and lowercase y in three cursive styles and two fancy variants
StyleCapital YLowercase y
Cursive styles
Cursive Script
Bold Cursive
Old Style Script
Fancy variants (not cursive)
Double-Struck
Clean Monospace

More letters: G in cursive · J in cursive · P in cursive · all letters A–Z

Write Anything in Cursive

The table above is single letters. Type a word, a name, or a whole sentence here and get it in all five styles — click a row to copy it.

Cursive Y Practice Sheet

A printable worksheet for handwriting the letter Y: the stroke order at the top, then ruled lines with grey letters to trace and blank lines to finish on your own. For all 26 letters on one worksheet, use the cursive alphabet practice sheet.

Cursive Y Stroke Order

Stroke order for a cursive capital Y and a cursive lowercase y Two letterforms between dashed guide lines. The capital Y is two strokes meeting in a valley near x-height with a tail dropping into the descender. The lowercase y is a single valley inside the x-height with a descender loop that swings left below the baseline. cap height x-height baseline capital Y lowercase y
The filled dot is where the pen starts, the open circle where it lifts.

How to Write a Capital Y in Cursive

  1. Start below cap height with a small entry curl and drop diagonally.
  2. Meet a point near x-height and rise back to cap height on the right.
  3. Bring the right stroke down through the baseline into the descender.
  4. Loop left and return to the baseline.

The valley of a capital Y sits around x-height, not down on the baseline. That is what keeps it distinct from a capital V with a tail.

How to Write a Lowercase y in Cursive

  1. Start at x-height and drop to a point on the baseline.
  2. Rise back to x-height.
  3. Drop straight through the baseline into the descender.
  4. Loop left and come back up to the baseline to exit.

The y is a v with a descender. If the top does not come to a point, it reads as a g.

Cursive y vs Cursive g

Both drop a left-swinging loop below the baseline, so the descenders are effectively identical. Everything depends on the top: a g has a closed round bowl, a y has an open pointed valley. Writers who round their y tops produce a letter that is a g in all but name, which is why gay and gag can be genuinely hard to tell apart in fast handwriting.

Joining y to the Next Letter

The descender loop returns to the baseline, so the y joins forward normally. Because y so often ends a word β€” happy, every, city β€” the loop is more often a finishing flourish than a real join, and a loop that runs on too far collides with the first letter of the next word.

Common Mistakes with Cursive Y

  • A rounded top. That makes it a g.
  • Looping the tail right. The y descender swings left.
  • A tail that does not return to the baseline. Nothing can join onto it.
  • A descender that reaches the line below. Keep the loop inside the descender space.

Names Starting With Y in Cursive

  • Yusuf — π’΄π“Šπ“ˆπ“Šπ’»
  • Yara — 𝒴𝒢𝓇𝒢
  • Yolanda — 𝒴ℴ𝓁𝒢𝓃𝒹𝒢
  • Yvette — 𝒴𝓋ℯ𝓉𝓉ℯ

Words Beginning With y in Cursive

  • yellow — π“Žβ„―π“π“β„΄π“Œ
  • yarn — π“Žπ’Άπ“‡π“ƒ
  • yield — π“Žπ’Ύβ„―π“π’Ή

Want a whole word or sentence? Use the cursive letters generator, or the cursive name generator for names. To practise these strokes on paper, print a cursive practice sheet.

Cursive Y FAQ

What is the cursive Y?

The cursive Y is the joined-up form of the letter Y. The capital has two strokes meeting near x-height with a tail dropping into the descender; the lowercase is a pointed valley in the x-height with a left-swinging descender loop. Online, “cursive Y” also means the copy-and-paste characters (𝒴 and π“Ž) above.

How do you write y in cursive?

In short: down to a point on the baseline, back up to x-height, then straight down through the baseline into a loop that swings left and returns to the baseline. Steps and diagram are above.

What is the difference between a cursive y and a cursive g?

The top. A g has a closed round bowl; a y has an open pointed valley. The descenders are the same, so the top carries all the information.

Why does my cursive y look like a g?

You are rounding the valley. Keep the bottom of the y sharp and the two sides straight, and the letter reads correctly even at speed.

Can I copy and paste a cursive Y?

Yes. Every Y above is a Unicode character rather than an image, so a click copies real text into a bio, a nickname, or a document.