How to pronounce ra ri ru re ro

When I was volunteering as a teaching assistant of Japanese language class at the university in the United States, I heard that Japanese learners often had trouble with pronunciation of Japanese “R” sound, ra ri ru re ro(らりるれろ).

In fact, the pronunciation is kind of unique.

It’s quite different from English “R” sound. Also, it’s slightly different from English “L” sound.

Let’s check out some points below!

Japanese “R” sound

So first, how do native Japanese speakers pronounce ra ri ru re ro?

When pronouncing them, the tip of your tongue touches the mid-front part of the roof of your mouth.

Some people may say it should be the back part of the roof of your mouth, but I would say it’s rather correct that your tongue touches the mid-front with bumpy surface.

It’s not the front part like the back of your teeth.

It’s not that back like the part close to your throat.

It can be said that it’s the part your tongue usually touches when you pronounce “D” sound such as “dear” or “T” sound such as “tea”.

The sound of ra ri ru re ro is made when the tip of your tongue leaves the roof of your mouth.

English “R” sound

When English speakers pronounce “R” in English, the tip of their tongue is pulled back and doesn’t touch any part in their mouth.

The clear difference with Japanese “R” is whether the tongue tip touches a certain part in the mouth.

English “L” sound

English “L” sound is pretty much similar to Japanese “R” sound, but there is a difference between them when you have a closer look.

While Japanese “R” sound is made by touching the tongue tip to the mid–front part of the upper gum as I said above, English “L” sound is usually made by touching it to the bottom of the upper front teeth.

Please note that which part of the inside of mouth the tongue touches is different.

Clue as to pronouncing ra ri ru re ro

Now we know the differences of the three mixed-up pronunciations.

The clue for pronouncing Japanese “R” sound, ra ri ru re ro, exists in American English.

When a native speaker of American English says “water“, the pronunciation of “t” is pretty much the same as “ら”.

Actually, when Japanese people learn how to pronounce “water”, some teachers say that “If you want to pronounce like a native speaker of American English, you don’t say “うぉーたー”, but need to say like “わーらー”. The “t” is pronounced like “ら”, not “た”.

(My English teacher in the high school used to say that.)

“Better” is another good example for getting a hint to pronounce らりるれろ correctly.

I believe it is effective for language learners to find something in common between the language you want to master and your mother tongue.

Even if you face a high wall, you can climb it up to with some hooks which you already know how to use.

Wrap-up

We’ve been looking at each way of pronouncing Japanese “R” sound, English “R” and Englsih “L” sound.

When you face the difficulty of distinguishing some confused things, it is very important to make it clear what is similar and what is different.

If you have a closer look at the confusions one at a time, you’ll get effective solutions for deep understanding.

Bye for now!