In the last lesson, we went over まみむめも — a simple lesson without any real gotchas.
The R consonant in this lesson is simple too, but there is a pronunciation issue to think about.
RA RI RU RE RO-らりるれろ
First let’s cover how to pronounce these characters. You can tap each character to hear native pronunciation.
This consonant has a catch. The R sounds like L.
Pronouncing らりるれろ
- ら (ra) – sounds like “la”
- り (ri) – sounds like “lee”
- る (ru) – sounds like “loo”
- れ (re) – sounds like “lay”
- ろ (ro) – sounds like “low”
Look Out For る-ろ and れ-ね
る(ru) and ろ (ro) are super easy to mix up. It took me a while to get these two correct regularly. It seems backwards that ろ (ro) doesn’t have the little loop at the bottom.
れ (re) and ね (ne) — from a previous lesson — are extremely similar too. Take care to make the difference straight in your mind through whatever technique you need. Personally I think of れ as a cursive R.