How to Write B in Cursive

By Maya Chen, lettering designer and type educator · Checked by Jordan Hale · October 2026 · How we review content

Capital B

Lowercase b

Typeface: Playwrite US Trad (traditional school cursive).

Capital B difficulty

Lowercase b difficulty

Cursive b is the letter people describe as 'an l with a hook'. That is close: it starts with the same tall loop as l, but instead of leaving along the baseline it curls back up to the midline and finishes with a tiny checkstroke. That high ending is what makes b one of the four bridge letters, together with o, v and w.

Capital B needs two bumps of different sizes and a retraced stem. Lowercase b is harder than it looks because it ends high, at the midline, with a small checkstroke, and that unusual exit changes how every following letter is joined.

Key facts

Capital B in cursive starts on the top line, where the stem will begin.
Lowercase b in cursive starts on the baseline, at the end of the previous letter's exit stroke.
In Zaner-Bloser and Palmer cursive, capital B does not join the next letter.
Lowercase b is in the same stroke family as e, l, h, k and f, so practising them together saves time.
We rate capital B 3 out of 5 and lowercase b 4 out of 5 for difficulty.

Copy and paste a cursive B

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How to write a cursive capital B

Traditional cursive capital B is a slanted stem with two bumps on the right: a smaller upper bump that meets the stem at the midline and a larger lower bump that closes near the baseline.

Start: On the top line, where the stem will begin.

1Pull a straight slant stroke down from the top line to the baseline.
2Retrace up the same stem all the way to the top line without lifting.
3Curve forward to the right and back in to the stem at the midline to form the upper bump, usually with a small loop where it meets the stem.
4Curve forward again, larger this time, and sweep down and back toward the stem along the baseline to form the lower bump.
5End with a short curl inside the lower bump near the stem, or a small stroke to the right, and lift.

Connecting: In Zaner-Bloser and Palmer cursive, capital B does not join the next letter. Lift after the lower bump and start the next letter close beside it. D'Nealian B is also normally written without a join.

How to write a cursive lowercase b

Lowercase cursive b climbs into a tall loop like l, comes straight down to the baseline, curves back up to the midline and closes with a small checkstroke that becomes a sideways bridge.

Start: On the baseline, at the end of the previous letter's exit stroke. · Letter family: Loop letters (e, l, h, k, b, f), which share the tall undercurve-and-loop start; b is also a bridge letter like o, v and w.

1Make an undercurve from the baseline up to the top line, slanting right.
2Loop back to the left at the top and pull a straight slant stroke down to the baseline, crossing the upstroke near the midline.
3At the baseline, curve up and to the right, climbing back to the midline in a rounded shape.
4At the midline, make a tiny checkstroke: a short dip or loop back to the left that closes the bowl.
5Leave sideways from the checkstroke with a short bridge stroke along the midline into the next letter.

Connecting: Lowercase b joins on both sides, but its exit is high: it leaves from the midline, not the baseline. The next letter has to start from that bridge.

Joining b to other letters

br: The bridge runs from the checkstroke straight into the r's peak, staying near the midline. Keep the bridge short and flat; if it dips to the baseline, 'br' turns into 'bur'.
bl: From the checkstroke, swing the bridge up into the tall loop of the l. The bridge rises more steeply here than in other b joins, so the l loop should stay the same height as the b loop.
ba: The bridge feeds directly into the over-and-back start of the a. Do not drop to the baseline first; begin the a's oval right where the bridge ends at the midline.
be: The e normally starts on the baseline, but after b it starts from the midline bridge. Dip the bridge slightly before the e loop so the e keeps its open eye and does not shrink into an i.

Common mistakes with cursive B

Leaving off the checkstroke
Finish the bowl with a small dip or loop at the midline. Without it the b looks like an l with a stray tail, and 'bit' starts to read as 'lit'.
Ending lowercase b on the baseline
Curve back up to the midline before exiting. A b that exits low drags the next letter down and loses its closed bowl.
Making both bumps of capital B the same size
Keep the upper bump smaller, meeting the stem at the midline, and the lower bump wider. Equal bumps make the capital look like a slanted 3 attached to a stick.
Forgetting to retrace the capital B stem
Go back up the stem on top of your first stroke. A separate second line beside the stem makes B look like two letters.

Easily confused with: Lowercase cursive b is confused with l (no bowl or checkstroke) and with f when the stem drifts below the baseline. Capital B can look like capital R if the lower bump is left open, or like a backward 3 if the stem is faint.

Practice words with b

Benjamin
Bella
bubble
brown
table
number

Printable practice sheet

Trace the grey letters, then write your own on the empty lines. Prints on one page (Letter or A4).

Cursive B b practice

Name: ____________________ coolletteringgenerator.com

Cursive B as a Unicode character

Typed script capitals are not all from one place: the script ℬ is U+212C from the older Letterlike Symbols block, while the lowercase 𝒷 comes from the math block, so in some fonts the pair looks slightly mismatched. Bold script 𝓑 and 𝓫 have no borrowed letters and match each other. For B in bubble, gothic and other styles, see B in different fonts.

Style	Capital	Lowercase	Code points
Bold Cursive	𝓑	𝓫	U+1D4D1 · U+1D4EB
Cursive Script	ℬ	𝒷	U+212C · U+1D4B7 *
Italic Serif	𝐵	𝑏	U+1D435 · U+1D44F
Bold Italic Serif	𝑩	𝒃	U+1D469 · U+1D483
Italic Sans	𝘉	𝘣	U+1D609 · U+1D623

* Borrowed from the Letterlike Symbols block (U+2100–214F), so it may look slightly different from neighbouring letters in some fonts.

Cursive B: questions

Why does lowercase cursive b look like an l with a hook?

Because that is how it is built. The b starts with the same tall loop as l, then curves back up from the baseline to the midline and closes with a small checkstroke. The 'hook' is that checkstroke, and it is what tells a reader the letter is b and not l.

Does cursive capital B connect to the next letter?

In traditional Zaner-Bloser and Palmer cursive it does not. You finish the lower bump, lift your pencil and start the next letter close to the B. Some modern handwriting styles add a short exit stroke so B can join, but school models generally keep it separate.

What is the checkstroke on a cursive b?

It is a tiny stroke at the midline at the end of the letter, either a small retrace or a little loop, that closes the bowl. It lets the b exit sideways at midline height, the same way o, v and w do, instead of dropping to the baseline.

How do you connect cursive b to r?

Make the checkstroke, then draw a short bridge along the midline straight into the r's peak. Do not drop to the baseline between them. The bridge and the r's upstroke are nearly the same line, so 'br' looks compact, as in 'brown' and 'bring'.