Hiragana Letter Small Tu Letter
っ is the Hiragana letter small tu (U+3063), used to indicate a geminated consonant in Japanese text.
U+3063
The character っ is a small Hiragana used in Japanese to show a “pause” or doubled consonant sound. It appears in many everyday words, especially where the next consonant needs emphasis. Use it confidently in writing, captions, and software text.
Hiragana Letter Small Tu Letter Meaning
っ is the Hiragana letter small tu, Unicode U+3063. In Japanese writing, it commonly indicates a geminated (doubled) consonant, effectively creating a short stop before the following consonant sound. For example, it can represent a small pause before sounds like “k,” “s,” “t,” “p,” or “ch,” depending on the word. It’s also used in romanization and typing workflows where accurate spelling depends on this small character. Because it is a distinct Unicode character (not punctuation), it should be copied correctly for accurate Japanese text rendering.
Common uses
- •Writing correct Japanese spelling where a consonant needs to be doubled
- •Typing Japanese dialogue in chat messages, comments, and captions
- •Creating subtitles or lyrics where pronunciation must be precise
- •Designing typography layouts that include small Hiragana characters
- •Building UI text strings or data that require exact Unicode characters
Examples
っ (Hiragana Letter Small Tu) Symbol Guide
- っがっこう
- っまっすぐ
- っきって
- っほっとけーき
- っすっごい
Variations
Technical codes
| Unicode | U+3063 | |
| HTML Entity | っ | |
| HTML Code | っ | |
| CSS | \3063 |
FAQ
What does the Hiragana Letter Small Tu letter mean?
っ is the Hiragana letter small tu, Unicode U+3063. In Japanese writing, it commonly indicates a geminated (doubled) consonant, effectively creating a short stop before the following consonant sound. For example, it can represent a small pause before sounds like “k,” “s,” “t,” “p,” or “ch,” depending on the word. It’s also used in romanization and typing workflows where accurate spelling depends on this small character. Because it is a distinct Unicode character (not punctuation), it should be copied correctly for accurate Japanese text rendering.
What is the Unicode code point for っ?
The Hiragana letter small tu is U+3063.
How do I type or copy っ reliably?
Copy the character directly from this page, or use its exact encodings such as っ or \\u{3063} in your code/editor.
Is っ the same as the Japanese punctuation mark “’” or an apostrophe?
No. っ is a Hiragana letter (U+3063). It is not punctuation and should be treated as a letter in text.
When should I use っ in Japanese text?
Use it when the following consonant is meant to be doubled (a geminated consonant), which affects how the word is pronounced.