How To Pronounce The Japanese “R” Sound
30. Dec, 2009
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I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas (if that’s what you celebrate), full of Christmas Cake and KFC. Yum! Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra raaaa!
One of the things that almost every Japanese learner has trouble with (if they’re a native English speaker), is the Japanese “R” sound. More specifically: Ra, ri, ru, re, & ro. Often times, it just ends up being a straight-up “R” sound, which is wrong, or some weird hybrid version of the sound that “L” makes when it’s on the toilet. It’s kind of sad, but very few people have “cracked” the Japanese “R” sound. A good 90% of people have trouble with this, and I’m going to flip that statistic on it’s head. After going through this lesson, 90% of you will be able to pronounce the Japanese R sound perfectly.
How To Do The Japanese “R”
Until a linguist friend told me about these steps, I was able to do the “R” sound, but it was difficult to explain in a way that most people could understand and see results. How did you do? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Better? The same? Worse (I hope not).
Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra!
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Excellent advice. Now only the dreaded “n” sound stands in our way.
actually … the “n” sound is simple… say n like in english and than throw away the first part so you only get the nosal sound :)
I was thinking while watching first seconds of the video “well I have no problem with R in japanese…” then you said “10% probably are spanish…”. Lucky me spanish has almost all japanese phoneme.
Great explanation, Koichi. That whole “They get their r's and l's mixed up, isn't that funny” thing is a huge pet peeve of mine…. when in fact the American-English-style r's and l's just don't exist as phonemes in Japanese. And without knowing how to do the Japanese “r,” you can't even get close to that tricky “ry-” sound! PS I'm really looking forward to your textbook.
Koichi, you WIN! This is the best explanation ever! Seriously! I e-mailed this to my linguistics prof!
yaaay <3 linguistics <3
Still don't get why it's a pet peeve of yours as it's the truth. And I've never found the Japanese 'r' to be difficult. Also, I failed Spanish in high school many, many times (had nothing to do with pronunciation though).
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Only 8 comments??????
140 comments on YouTube
Thanks for the review. I actually felt confident in pronouncing the Japanese “R” before, but this is helpful. I'll think of it as a safety net just in case I get rusty. I'm bound to when I'm surrounded by idiots who say “ching-chong” when making fun of the Japanese and weeboos that try watching anime with English subtitles and 5 minutes later say “MY BRAIN HURTS” and go to the dub. Yes, Koichi. I know watching anime with English subtitles is not an effective learning strategy. It's purely for entertainment. I'd rather see a German film in German, a French film in French, etc. So obviously I'd rather see any type of Japanese movie or TV show in Japanese. Sorry, but I had to clarify that and I know how much you hate it when people use anime to learn Japanese. So, thanks again.
ok I m whole new to this Japanese Learning Culture But I have been trying this since long. I am like half Japanese girl. I never bothered to learn or know about Japan but recently I m in a kinda love with Japanese culture and all. I wanna learn Japanese. I am reading ur website to see how I can start learning Japanese.
For this I need atleast one japanese Friend.
haha, did that text get you to comment?
Finding Japanese friends / language partners -> http://lang-8.com
Though, usually this requires you to know a little bit of Japanese, first.
*cough* http://textfugu.com *cough*
Or, if you want some other suggestions I'd be happy to point you around.
hey! how come? what's up with the 'n'? just wondering. still getting to know about japanese here. doumo!
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Soooo, I'm way late in making a comment here, but great lesson! Managed to master this sound quite a while back, but never known how to explain it to somebody else. Now it would appear that the veil has been lifted – great work! Whoop!
Thank god my dad pushed me to learn Spanish at home. Now I have to push myself to learn Japanese.
I reply late. Very late. I was referring to the “n” sound as some books say to pronounce it. Without your tongue, with the sound made in your throat. I use my tongue anyways, though.
Maybe I'm just odd, but I don't find the 'R' sound so hard anymore, but the 'fu' and 'bu' sounds drive me mad. No one understand me when I try to say たぶん @___@
this is great! thx much for sharing.
This video explains where to put your tongue, but i am wondering, what motion are we to make with the tongue/ “air movement?” With the L, the tongue does all the work. With a D, the air kind of pushes or “bursts” against/on the tongue. For an R, the tongue curves a bit while moving. I don't know if my explanation is too weird, but i think i need to know what kind of tongue movement is happening when making the sound.
the japanese “r” sound came easy for me, since my first language was spanish. There are 2 “r”s in spanish, the r sound in “roberto” and the double “rr”, or rolling r” in the word “Carro” or car in english.
I pronounce it with the “dd” sound in ladder… dunno if that's right xD
Hi! Just caught your video and I found it very helpful. One question: you mentioned that being of Spanish descent might make the Japanese R easier to pronounce, but is it just because they're similar? They sound different to me, and yet I find myself using them interchangeably. I know that's not exactly right. Advice?
Hi! Just caught your video and I found it very helpful. One question: you mentioned that being of Spanish descent might make the Japanese R easier to pronounce, but is it just because they're similar? They sound different to me, and yet I find myself using them interchangeably. I know that's not exactly right. Advice?
I still has some “R” questions, for when I listen on Japanese news do I often hear the word kuruma with a clear R as in Yarrr, also when I hear words as sayonara, but also ari and aru as in this songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uoRaRIWKTg
So my question is is folks in Japan will floor-LOL me if I say R as an pirate?
Im brazilian, and portuguese pronunce is quite similar to japanese, so its easy to me ^^
I still has some “R” questions, for when I listen on Japanese news do I often hear the word kuruma with a clear R as in Yarrr, also when I hear words as sayonara, but also ari and aru as in this songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uoRaRIWKTg
So my question is is folks in Japan will floor-LOL me if I say R as an pirate?
Im brazilian, and portuguese pronunce is quite similar to japanese, so its easy to me ^^
I think that I can do it when the sounds are by themselves (ra, ri, ru, re, ro), but when they are in a word, especially next to each other, I find it very difficult. For example, taberareru, ireru, etc.
Your articles above are very thoughtful and insightful. Thank you!
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Your articles above are very thoughtful and insightful. Thank you!
designer handbags is the Designer Handbags online store. As a leading brand bags wholesaler, we’re proud to offer the widest selection of quality replica handbags at the lowest price which you can afford. Here are many designer bags for your choice and free shipping service that offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Yep, that about does it. As a Spanish speaker as well my tongue always felt in danger of rolling on ra, ri, ru, re, ro.. the la/da thing made my brain make a totally different file. YaY!