ぬ

• IPA^(key): [nɯ̟ᵝ]

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

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. The hiragana syllable ぬ (nu). Its equivalent in katakana is ヌ (nu). It is the twenty-third syllable in the gojūon order; its position is な行う段 (na-gyō u-dan, “row na, section u”).

• (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

Originally the 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive form”) of Classical Japanese negative particle ず. In modern Japanese, the 終止形 (shūshikei, “terminal form”) (lemma, originally ず) assimilated to ぬ.

ぬ (rōmaji -nu)

1. (after the 未然形 (mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of a verb) the negative: indicates negation of the action, ending without starting or occurring: not

   風 (かぜ)が立 (た)たぬ

   kaze ga tatanu

   the wind does not rise / does not pick up

• For classical conjugation, see ず.

(negative verb ending):

• (very casual, also archaic, also dialectal) ん (n)
• (casual) ない (nai)
• (formal) ません (masen)
• (written formal) ず (zu)
• (Kansai) へん (hen)

From Old Japanese.[1][2][3]

Many monolingual Japanese dictionaries[1][2][3] derive this as a contraction of Old Japanese 往ぬ (inu, “to go away; to pass (such as time); to pass away, to die”); however, the meaning does not seem to make sense in the context of the verb ending -nu.

More recent work by Bjarke Frellesvig and others suggests that -nu may have originated from an ancient copular or stative verb.

ぬ (rōmaji -nu)

1. (after the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb) the perfective: indicates completion of the action, ending after starting or occurring: has done, has happened

   風 (かぜ)が立 (た)ちぬ

   kaze ga tachinu

   the wind has risen / has picked up

   • 1943, 土井晩翠譯『オヂュッセーア』第十九歌

     多 (おほ)くの女性 (ぢよせい)彼 (かれ)を見 (み)て皆 (みな)驚嘆 (きやうたん)の目 (め)を張 (は)りぬ。

     Ōku no josei kare wo mite mina kyōtan no me o harinu.

     Many women looked at him and all opened their eyes wide with admiration.

• In Old Japanese and continuing in classical and later Japanese, the ending -nu and the ending -ta have both been used to mark the completion of an action. -nu was used mainly for verbs that indicated intransitive, naturally occurring, or unintentional actions, while -ta was used mainly for verbs that indicated transitive or intentional actions.
• In classical Japanese, perfective ぬ is different from negative ぬ (ず) as shown in the following table:

	Negative ぬ (ず)	Perfective ぬ
Terminal (終止形)	ず	ぬ
Attributive (連体形)	ぬ	ぬる

• In modern Japanese, -nu is rarely encountered, and it often imparts a formal or archaic sense.

(perfective verb ending):

• (casual) た (ta)
• (formal) ました (mashita)

Cognate with Japanese の (no).

• IPA^(key): /nu/

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. possessive particle

Cognate with Japanese の (no).

• IPA^(key): /nu/

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. possessive particle

Cognate with Japanese の (no).

• IPA^(key): /nu/

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. possessive particle

Cognate with Japanese の (no).

• IPA^(key): /nu/

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. possessive particle

Cognate with Japanese の (no).

• IPA^(key): /nu/

ぬ (romaji nu)

1. possessive particle