Browse

Cursive Y: How to Write Uppercase Y and Lowercase y

4 free PDFsUS Letter PDFsNo login

A big model of cursive Y and y with step-by-step directions, plus practice pages for lowercase y, uppercase Y, joins and y words.

Download the Letter Y worksheets

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these letter Y worksheets

This is cursive Y and y in modern cursive: joined lowercase letters with simple capitals. How to write lowercase y: start at the midline. Pull down, curve around and push up to the midline, then pull straight down below the baseline. Loop back to the left and come up to the baseline, ending with a flick. How to write uppercase Y: slant down from the top left to the middle. Slant down from the top right to meet it. Then pull straight down to the baseline.

Lowercase y loops below the baseline and swings back up into the next letter, so yyy and words like yes are written without lifting the pencil. In the usual teaching order, y is learned with the overcurve letters (n, m, x, y, v, z).

The four worksheets below start with a large chart of Y, y and yyy, then give a page each for lowercase y, uppercase Y, and joins and words such as yes, yak, yam, yell, yard and yarn.

Standards

  • Texas TEKS Grade 2 (handwriting)develop handwriting by accurately forming all cursive letters using appropriate strokes when connecting letters
  • Texas TEKS Grade 3 (handwriting)write complete words, thoughts, and answers legibly in cursive leaving appropriate spaces between words

How to use them

  1. Start with the chart page. Read the steps aloud while your child traces the big y with a finger, then writes it on the rows below.
  2. On the lowercase page, trace each single y, then the joined yyy, then write your own on the blank rows.
  3. Use the uppercase page for Y and names like Yara, Yuri and Yuki.
  4. Finish with the words page: the joins, the words yes, yak and yam, and the sentence “A young yak ate a yam.”

Teaching tips for Y

  • Lowercase y: Start at the midline. Pull down, curve around and push up to the midline, then pull straight down below the baseline. Loop back to the left and come up to the baseline, ending with a flick.
  • Uppercase Y: Slant down from the top left to the middle. Slant down from the top right to meet it. Then pull straight down to the baseline.
  • Watch for y and g mix-ups. The y starts like a u, the g starts like an a.
  • Print at actual size (100%). The gray letters are solid, so they copy cleanly, and each row has a black model at both ends for left-handed writers.

Questions about letter Y

How do you write a cursive y?

Start at the midline. Pull down, curve around and push up to the midline, then pull straight down below the baseline. Loop back to the left and come up to the baseline, ending with a flick.

How do you write a capital Y in cursive?

In modern cursive: slant down from the top left to the middle. Slant down from the top right to meet it. Then pull straight down to the baseline. Capitals don't join to the next letter, so write the Y, then start the lowercase letters close by.

How does cursive y join to other letters?

The y loops below the baseline and swings back up to the baseline, then keeps going into the next letter without a lift, as in ya, ye and yi.