# つ

| つ | U+3064, &#12388; HIRAGANA LETTER TU |
| ← っ [U+3063] | Hiragana | づ → [U+3065] |

## Japanese
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [t͡sɨ]
* Audio:(file)

### Etymology 1

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 川 in the cursive sōsho style.

#### Syllable

つ • (tsu)
* The hiragana syllable つ (tsu). Its equivalent in katakana is ツ (tsu). It is the eighteenth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is た行う段 (ta-gyō u-dan, “row ta, section u”).

##### See also

* (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ
* とぅ (tu)

### Etymology 2

⟨tu⟩ → /t͡su/
From Old Japanese. According to one theory (Can this etymology be sourced?), shortened from 棄(う)つ (utsu, “to throw away, to discard”).

#### Suffix

つ • (-tsu)
* (Classical Japanese) indicates the completion of an action
* (Classical Japanese) indicates certainty
* (Classical Japanese) indicates affirmation
* (Classical Japanese, in the form ...tsu ...tsu) shows parallel action

##### Usage notes

* 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”). Attaches to the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of a verb.
* つ (tsu) is mainly used with transitive verbs while ぬ (nu) is mainly used with intransitive verbs.
* This word is morphologically an inflectional suffix. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.

##### Conjugation

Stem forms :
| Irrealis (未然形) | て | て | te |
| Continuative (連用形) | て | て | te |
| Terminal (終止形) | つ | つ | tu |
| Attributive (連体形) | つる | つる | turu |
| Realis (已然形) | つれ | つれ | ture |
| Imperative (命令形) | てよ | てよ | teyo |
| Negative | ざりつ$^{[1]}$ | ざりつ$^{[1]}$ | zaritu |
| Contrasting conjunction | つれど | つれど | turedo |
| Causal conjunction | つれば | つれば | tureba |
| Conditional conjunction | てば | てば | teba |
| $^{[1]}$Perfect tense of ず. ||||

##### Derived terms

* つつ (tsutsu, “although, while”)
* て (te, conjunctive suffix)

### Etymology 3

⟨tu⟩ → /t͡su/
From Old Japanese.
There were some variants found in the old documents, starting with alveolar consonants like の (no), な (na), す (su), し (shi), て (te) etc.
Yamada (1913) proposed that it is cognate with Old Korean 叱 (-s) (whence Middle Korean ㅅ (-s)). However, the phonology does not match, and there is a distinct vestigial medial -s- that appears in certain ancient Japanese terms, such as 春雨 (harusame, possibly haru ("spring") + -s- (genitive) + ame ("rain")), 新稲 (nīshine, possibly nī ("new") + -s- (genitive) + ine ("rice")), 真青 (masao, possibly ma ("true, real") + -s- (genitive) + ao ("blue")).

#### Particle

つ • (tsu)
* (archaic, obsolete) genitive or possessive marker
    豊(とよ)葦(あし)原(はらの)中(なかつ)国(くに)
       Toyoashihara no Nakatsukuni
       Toyoashihara no Nakatsukuni
    天(あま)つ風(かぜ)
       ama tsu kaze
       wind blowing from the heavens
    国(くに)つ神(かみ)
       kuni tsu kami
       kami of the land

##### Usage notes

A few terms in modern Japanese have been derived from the possessive marker tsu:
* 目(ま) (ma, “eye”, combining form) + つ (tsu) + 毛(け) (ke, “hair”) → 睫(まつげ) (matsuge, “eyelashes”)
* 身(み) (mi, “body”) + つ (tsu) + 柄(から) (kara, “design → by itself”) → 自(みずか)ら (mizukara, “personally, oneself”)

##### See also

* が (ga)
* の (no)

### Etymology 4

* Alternative spellings
* 個 箇
From Old Japanese.

#### Counter

つ • (-tsu)
* suffixed to Japanese numerals hito-, futa-, mi-, ... , kokono-, used to count almost anything
    Synonym: 個 (-ko)

##### Derived terms

v • d • eJapanese counter/suffix: つ (tsu) :
| Number | Kanji | Kana | Romaji |
| 1 | 一つ | ひとつ | hitotsu |
| 2 | 二つ | ふたつ | futatsu |
| 3 | 三つ | みっつ、みつ | mittsu, mitsu |
| 4 | 四つ | よっつ、よつ | yottsu, yotsu |
| 5 | 五つ | いつつ | itsutsu |
| 6 | 六つ | むっつ、むつ | muttsu, mutsu |
| 7 | 七つ | ななつ | nanatsu |
| 8 | 八つ | やっつ、やつ | yattsu, yatsu |
| 9 | 九つ | ここのつ | kokonotsu |
| ? | 幾つ | いくつ | ikutsu |

#### See also

* ち (-chi), for 二十歳 (hatachi), みそじ (misoji)

### Etymology 5

For pronunciation and definitions of つ – see the following entries. :
| 【津】S | [proper noun] Tsu (a city in Mie prefecture, Japan) |
| 【唾】S | [noun] (archaic, possibly obsolete) spit, saliva |
| 【都】3 | [affix] all, both, everyone, whole |
(This term, つ (tsu), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.) For a list of all kanji read as つ, see Category:Japanese kanji read as つ.) :

### Etymology 6

Probably from kaomoji such as (´･ω･)つ旦, which represents serving tea.

#### Symbol

つ
* (Internet slang) Representing a hand handing something over.

##### See also

* ノシ

### References

* ↑ Choi Kun-Sik (崔建植) (1999) “上代籍帳の人名における連体助詞「つ」について”, in 文学史研究 40‎
* ↑ Yamada, Yoshio (1913) 奈良朝文法史