Hiragana Letter Bu

Hiragana Letter Bu at U+3076 writes the Japanese mora bu, pronounced like “boo” but typically shorter and timed as one beat. It belongs to the Hiragana block, the rounded kana script used for native Japanese words, grammar endings, particles, and readings of kanji. In ordinary Japanese text, ぶ appears in words such as ぶた for “pig,” ぶどう for “grapes,” and あぶない for “dangerous.” It is the voiced form of ふ, made by adding dakuten marks, so learners encounter it as part of the ha-row sound changes: は, ひ, ふ, へ, ほ becoming ば, び, ぶ, べ, ぼ. It is also common in children’s materials, furigana pronunciation guides, dictionaries, and language textbooks, where hiragana gives the reading of kanji or teaches vocabulary before kanji are introduced. In romanization it is written bu, and in kana ordering it is treated with its base kana ふ while retaining its voiced pronunciation.