Japanese Language - Pronunciation

10 MINUTE LESSON

THE R'S: ra ri ru re ro

10 MINUTE LESSON RULES: 1. Say the examples. 2. Pay close attention to the underlined parts.

In this lesson we will look at how to correctly pronounce the R sounds. For English speakers this is probably the most difficult to pronounce, because it sounds nothing like the English R sounds. GOOD NEWS! Really, if you spend a little time learning how the sounds work, you can master it in no time! Get ready!

BEFORE THE LESSON YOU NEED TO KNOW...

The pronunciation of the R's are NOT the same as in English
There are 2 parts to master the R's: Tongue and Mouth
Listen to the sound file & come back to it many times while reading-- > RARIRURERO.wav (53 kb)
Lastly, You can do it!

始めましょう！ Let's begin...

The sound is made by lightly slapping your tongue just behind your upper teeth. Think of making an L sound, like LOVE. That is the approximate place. The only difference between the Japanese R and the English L sound is how long the tongue is held there. In English the tongue is held a while while air goes around it. In Japanese, the tongue is immediately dropped.All of the R sounds are made the same way with the tongue.

The mouth takes a little practice to make it natural, but it is also easy, really. Very simply, for RA RI & RE the mouth is more opened and for RU & RO the mouth is more rounded and shut. [NOTE: actually for perfect pronunciation, ALL 5 sounds have separate mouth positions -- we will look at this, but remember basically for RA, RI & RE the mouth is more opened and RU & RO it is rounded and smaller.]

I apologize for the pictures, but here are the 5 general positions of the mouth for the 5 different sounds... To hear a sound file for each sound click on the letter below:

Again the most important thing is RA, RI & RE (the yellow) have a kind of opened, wide mouth and RU & RO (the red) have a more rounded, small mouth. Practice saying them in order -- (open mouth) RA RI (round mouth) RU (open mouth) RE (round mouth) RO. Listen to the sound file -- RARIRURERO.wav (53 kb)

Lastly remember, slap the tongue with a wide mouth for RA, RI, RE and slap the tongue with a round mouth for RU & RO.

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