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Cursive Alphabet

How to Write in Cursive

The strokes every letter is made of, the order to learn the letters in, how they join, and what to do with dots, crosses and capitals. Ten minutes a day on ruled paper is enough.

1. Set up the paper and the pencil

Cursive slants to the right, and the easiest way to get the slant is to tilt the paper rather than your hand. Turn the page so the ruled lines run slightly uphill to the right; left-handers turn it the other way. Hold the pencil about an inch from the tip with a relaxed grip — a tight grip makes loops pinch and strokes wobble. Use paper with three lines: a top line, a dashed midline and a baseline. Every drawing on this site is on that paper, and every practice sheet prints with it.

2. The four basic strokes

Every letter in the alphabet is put together from four movements. Practise each one across a full row before you write a single letter; when the strokes are even, the letters are.

Undercurve stroke: i u w

Undercurve

Starts on the baseline and swings up to the right like a bowl. The entry to i, u, w, t, e, l, b, h, k, f, j, p, r and s.

Overcurve stroke: n m v

Overcurve

Arches up and over from the left like a hill. The entry to n, m, v, x, y and z.

Downcurve stroke: a c o

Downcurve

Starts at the midline and curves counter-clockwise down and back. The start of every oval letter: a, c, d, g, o, q.

Slant stroke: l t d

Slant

A straight stroke down to the baseline at the slant of the word. It closes almost every letter.

3. Learn the lowercase letters in families

Do not go A to Z. Letters that start with the same stroke are learned together, because once the stroke is in your hand the rest of the family follows. The lowercase letters page lays the families out side by side; a sequence that works:

  1. i, u, w, t — the undercurve, the retrace and the exit tail. Everything else builds on these.
  2. e, l, b, h, k, f — loops. e is a small loop; l is a tall one; b, h, k and f are l with something added.
  3. a, c, d, g, o, q — ovals. Master the closed oval once and you have six letters.
  4. n, m, v, x, y, z — overcurves. The rounded hump is the whole skill.
  5. r, s, j, p — the ones that look least like print. Each has its own page with the trick spelled out.

Write each new letter five times on its own, then five times joined to a letter you already know. Check the height against the lines every time — short letters stop at the midline, tall letters reach the top line, descenders drop below the baseline.

4. Joining letters

Most lowercase letters end with an undercurve tail on the baseline, and the next letter simply starts from that tail — that is the join. Four letters break the pattern: b, o, v, w finish at the midline and join with a short level bridge, so the letter after them begins up there. Practise the pairs be, on, ov, wr until the bridge feels natural.

Baseline join in an versus bridge join in on

Baseline join (an) versus bridge join (on).

Keep the pen on the paper through the whole word. Dots on i and j, the crossbar on t and the second stroke of x are all added afterward, in one pass from left to right.

5. Capitals last

Capitals start words and never join to the letter before them. Learn first the ones that are simply enlarged lowercase forms — C, J, M, N, O, U, Y — then the stem capitals B, D, F, H, P, R, T, and finally the odd shapes A, G, I, K, L, Q, S, V, W, X, Z. After B, D, F, I, O, P, S, T, V, W, X you lift the pen; every other capital ends with a tail and joins the next letter. The capital letters page shows all 26 side by side.

6. A daily routine

  • Two rows of strokes to warm up.
  • One new letter, or one letter that gave trouble yesterday — five alone, five joined.
  • Three words that use it. The worksheet generator will rule them for you.
  • One line of a sentence, for rhythm. “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter; there are more sentences and pangrams to trace.

Ten minutes is plenty. Consistency matters more than length, and even letter heights matter more than speed — speed arrives on its own once the strokes are automatic.

Common questions

How long does it take to learn cursive?

There is no fixed answer, and it depends far more on how often you practise than on how long each session is. Ten minutes a day on one letter family at a time is a realistic routine, and the lowercase alphabet is the part that comes first. Speed and a personal style come later; the strokes come first.

Should I learn lowercase or uppercase cursive first?

Lowercase. Almost everything you write is lowercase, the letters share strokes with each other, and almost every join in a word is lowercase to lowercase — a capital joins only at the start, and eleven capitals do not join at all. Capitals are learned last, once the lowercase alphabet is automatic.

When do you dot the i and cross the t in cursive?

After the whole word is written. Cursive keeps the pen on the paper through the word; when you reach the end, go back and add every dot and crossbar in one pass, left to right.

Why do some cursive letters connect at the top?

Four letters — b, o, v, w — finish at the midline instead of the baseline, so they join the next letter with a short level bridge stroke. The letter after a bridge letter starts from the midline, which is why "on" and "we" feel different from "an" and "he".

Is cursive still taught in schools?

It depends on the state and the district. Many US states require cursive instruction in elementary school and others leave it to local choice, so children arrive at middle school with very different exposure. Learning it at home on ruled paper works at any age.