る, in hiragana, or ル in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. The hiragana is written in one stroke; the katakana in two. Both represent the sound [ɾɯ] ^ⓘ. The Ainu language uses a small katakana ㇽ to represent a final r sound after an u sound (ウㇽ ur). The combination of an R-column kana letter with handakuten ゜- る゚ in hiragana, and ル゚ in katakana was introduced to represent [lu] in the early 20th century.^{[according to whom?]}

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Quick facts Transliteration, Hiragana origin …

ru
Hiragana Katakana
Transliteration	ru
Hiragana origin	留
Katakana origin	流
Man’yōgana	留 流 類
Spelling kana	留守居のル Rusui no “ru”
Unicode	U+308B, U+30EB
Braille

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The hiragana for ru (る) is made with one stroke, and its katakana form (ル) is made with two.

る (hiragana) begins with a horizontal stroke to the right, followed by a slightly longer, angular stroke going down and to the left. Finally, a curve and loop are added to the bottom that somewhat resembles the hiragana no (の). The character as a whole is visually similar to the hiragana for ro (ろ).

ル (katakana) is made by first making a curved stroke going down and to the left, and is followed by a stroke that first goes straight down, and then a curved line going up and to the right.

Japanese radiotelephony alphabet	Wabun code
留守居のル Rusui no “Ru”	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ⓘ

Japanese Navy Signal Flag	Japanese semaphore	Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling)	Braille dots-145 Japanese Braille

• Full Braille representation

More information る / ル in Japanese Braille …

る / ル in Japanese Braille
る / ル ru	るう / ルー rū	Other kana based on Braille る
		りゅ / リュ ryu	りゅう / リュー ryū

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• Japanese phonology