つ

See also: づ and っ

Japanese

Stroke order

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [t͡sɨᵝ]

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 川 in the cursive sōsho style.

Syllable

つ (romaji tsu)

1. The hiragana syllable つ (tsu). Its equivalent in katakana is ツ (tsu). It is the eighteenth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is た行う段 (ta-gyō u-dan, “row ta, section u”).

See also

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こ𛄲 (𛄲)ご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, 𛀆, ゆゅ, 𛀁, よょ, らら゚, りり゚, るる゚, れれ゚, ろろ゚, わゎわ゙, ゐ𛅐 (𛅐)ゐ゙, 𛄟 (𛄟), ゑ𛅑 (𛅑)ゑ゙, を𛅒 (𛅒)を゙, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ
• とぅ (tu)

Etymology 2

⟨tu⟩ → /t͡su/

From Old Japanese. According one theory, shortened from 棄(う)つ (<utu> → utsu, “throw away, discard”).

Suffix

つ • (-tsu) 

1. (Classical Japanese, jodōshi) indicates the completion of an action
2. (Classical Japanese, jodōshi) indicates certainty
3. (Classical Japanese, jodōshi) indicates affirmation
4. (Classical Japanese, jodōshi, in the form ...tsu ...tsu) shows parallel action

Conjugation

Classical conjugation of "つ" (タ行下二段活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Stem forms
Irrealis (未然形)	て		te
Continuative (連用形)	て		te
Terminal (終止形)	つ		tu
Attributive (連体形)	つる		turu
Realis (已然形)	つれ		ture
Imperative (命令形)	てよ		teyo
Negative	[1]		-
Contrasting conjunction	つれど		turedo
Causal conjunction	つれば		tureba
Conditional conjunction	てば		teba
[1]Use perfect tense of ず.

Usage notes

• 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”). Attaches to the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of a verb.
• つ (tsu) is mainly used with transitive verbs while ぬ (nu) is mainly used with intransitive verbs.

Derived terms

• つつ (tsutsu, “although, while”)

Etymology 3

⟨tu⟩ → /t͡su/

From Old Japanese.

There were some variants found in the old documents, start with alveolar consonants like の (no), な (na), す (su), し (shi), て (te) etc.

Yamada (1913) proposed that it's cognate with Old Korean 叱 (-s) (whence Middle Korean ㅅ (-s)).

Particle

つ • (tsu) 

1. (archaic, obsolete) genitive case marker

   豊(とよ)葦(あし)原(はらの)中(なかつ)国(くに)

   Toyoashihara no Nakatsukuni

   Toyoashihara no Nakatsukuni

   天(あま)つ風(かぜ)

   ama tsu kaze

   wind blowing from the heavens

Usage notes

A few terms in modern Japanese have been derived from the case-marker tsu:

• 目(ま) (ma, “eye”, combining form) + つ(tsu) (tsu) 毛(け) (ke, “hair”) → 睫(まつげ) (matsuge, “eyelashes”)
• 身(み) (mi, “body”) + つ(tsu) (tsu) + 柄(から) (kara, “design → by itself”) → 自(みずか)ら (mizukara, “personally, oneself”)

See also

• が(ga) (ga)
• の(no) (no)

Etymology 4

From Old Japanese.

Alternative forms

• 個, 箇

Counter

つ • (-tsu) 

1. suffixed to Japanese numerals hito-, futa-, mi-, ... , kokono-, used to count almost anything

   Synonym: 個 (-ko)

Derived terms

Japanese number-counter combinations for つ (tsu)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	How many?
一(ひと)つ (hitotsu)	二(ふた)つ (futatsu)	三(みっ)つ (mittsu) 三(み)つ (mitsu)	四(よっ)つ (yottsu) 四(よ)つ (yotsu)	五(いつ)つ (itsutsu)	六(むっ)つ (muttsu) 六(む)つ (mutsu)	七(なな)つ (nanatsu)	八(やっ)つ (yattsu) 八(や)つ (yatsu)	九(ここの)つ (kokonotsu)	幾(いく)つ (ikutsu)

See also

• ち(chi) (-chi), for 二十歳 (hatachi), 三十路 (misoji)

Etymology 5

Noun

つ • (tsu) 

1. 津: harbor, port; ferry

Proper noun

つ • (Tsu) 

1. 津: a place name
2. 津:

Etymology 6

Noun

つ • (tsu) 

1. 唾: saliva, spit

Etymology 7

Probably from kaomoji such as (´･ω･)つ旦, which represents serving tea.

Symbol

つ

1. (Internet slang) Representing a hand handing something over.

See also

• ノシ