I don't know why so many sources are comparing the Japanese 'r' sounds to English 'l' or 'r' sounds. As an American, it sounds much closer to the 'd' sound. I personally hear the Japanese 'r' as a softer English 'd' sound.
Chinese language speakers seem to use L for R, and I think alot of English speakers don't know the difference between Chinese English speakers and other, Native Asian language English speakers.
As a dutch person SAME!!! I her our casual d sound like ri sounds the same as die in germand or dutch. so if it's jsut the d sound I have been worried about nothing when pronounsing it. the L in dutch sound strong and llllloooonnnng and the R sound is one heck of a rollercoaster in dutch so hearing it now really well it sounds like a d to me.
The English d has the same point of articulation, so the r is basically just a d but without closing the tongue long enough to increase air pressure and create a plosive opening. And also with the voicing starting as the tongue approaches the alveolar ridge, not when it is released as for the d. Thus you get more of the continuous sound of the air friction as the tongue closes rather than the stop and release of a d. Voicing onset is probably the most crucial thing to making it sound like an r.
Perfectly explained, and I sincerely appreciate your style of video with clear, direct explanations, and with proper IPA terminology. This video is the first of yours I’ve seen so far, and now I’m going to look through all of your uploads. Keep it up!
started learning japanese about a week ago... I was having trouble undestanding the sounds because I have hearing damage from working around heavy machinery... the visuals of tongue placement helped me IMMENSELY.
I don't know about everyone else but personally the word "hiragana" was easy to make the "r" sound so if you just practice saying it fast then slowly it's easier to figure out how to say it, so to say the "ra","ri","ru" I started saying hiragana but at the "r" sound i finished it saying "ra","ri","ru" (sorry if that made no sense this isn't my first language 😅)
I just wanna say thx a year late but, u were one of the main kick starter things that ended up helpin me, a person with an r lisp end up learning how to say the Japanese r correctly and now I'm speakin all the Japanese sounds basically like a native speaker with no problem at all, so once again thank you;)
Well it's useful if it matches your dialect, not the case for Southern American speakers like myself. Where we KEPT OUR R'S RHOTIC. Better has a T not a Japanese R. BEHTER
lol.. the way you pronounce T and D is different compare to らりるれろ I don't want to write more explanation just try to watch this ruclips.net/video/hGZ9GwrNWmU/видео.html
Hmm maybe. "D" is voiced and "t" is unvoiced but aspirated. The Japanese "r" is definitely unaspirated but it is voiced, which at least by description does match "d". Then again it depends which dialect of English you're comparing against.
I pronounce my R as if I’m about to say L but just a slight tap on the roof with the tip of your tongue edit: (I’m talking about ridge on the roof or behind it, not to far tho. still comes out like a Japanese r)
This was so helpful! I'm 13, already fluent in English and Spanish, but I'm trying to learn Japanese too (so I can be trilingual). I didn't know the Japanese R is the same sound as the soft Spanish R and the English use of the T sound in "better". It was great to have that comparison. This video is very well made. Thank you very much, muchisimas gracias, or arigatou gozaimasu!
When i was learning japanese and spanish at the same time I'd always subconsciously use the japanese r for the soft r in Spanish but i thought i was wrong when i used so i tried to stop lol but I never really did
That would be the American way of saying 'better', rather than the English, but yes as soon as I realised that it really helped. Still struggling with stringing consonants together, but practise makes perfect!
@@michaelmam1490 Problem is my tongue doesn't know how to do that, as described, at the start of words. And we when he does it himself at the start of words, I hear a hard 'd". I hear him do what he describes in the middle of words. I'm sure it's how my ears are tuned, but I just hear a 'd".
Finally someone who doesn't associate it directly with the L sound so strongly! I'm puertorrican therefore I speak spanish so it was really easy for me to learn the correct pronunciation from the get go. Now I'm not one to comment on the subject since I'm still on baby steps at learning grammar and basic vocabulary but I always found it kind of annoying how other teachers just straight up kept saying la, li, lu, le, lo instead of just comparing it to a soft D sound (let's say soft D is ~d so it would be ~da, ~di, ~du, ~de, ~do ). Sorry for the small rant.
I’ve watched a few videos on this topic but still struggled to pronounce the Rs until I found this one. Thanks! I appreciate the clear direct information.
Thank you so much! This video was super helpful. What helped me learn how to pronounce the 'th' sound in English was knowing how my mouth had to move in order to make that sound, so I appreciate that you explained that. And knowing that I pronounce those sounds in everyday words of my native language worked like a shortcut to get them right. Again, thank you and I hope you have a good day!
You make the best pronunciation videos! Most teachers don’t do a good job teaching pronunciation. Your points on tongue placement reduced my accent greatly!
My mother tongue is Polish (a Slavic language). Unfortunately we don't have this sound. We use a hard 'r'. Everytime I speak Japanese I'm afraid that my too harsh 'r' is noticeable. This helped me to understand the theory but my tongue still wants to pronounce this sound harder.
Thank you for watching! Try not to blow air when the tip of the tongue taps the alveolar ridge because the trilled R (Polish R) is the sound produced by blowing air and making the tip of the tongue vibrate. Say “ららららら” consciously using the tip of your tongue and not blowing air! Hope this helps:)
Native English speaker here and It's only this week that I have been able to pronounce this "r". It's not really an "r" as much as it is a "d". Record yourself saying sada and while it definitely sounds like you're saying sada at the time, when you play it back it sounds like sara.
I got a comment from another Polish person saying there’s the Japanese R in Polish. Seems like the R as in “który” is the same sound as the Japanese R! Dziękuję!!!
@@campanasdejapanese Oh you're right! I've learned the pronunciation of Japanese r already. Thank to you a lot! Japanese language is a very popular language to learn here in Poland, so don't be surprised if there are many people from Poland trying to learn Japanese haha
@@johnmd2263 The "r" sounds across languages vary greatly. More than any other sound. In fact the exact same sound which is regarded as an 'r' in French is regarded as 'gh' in Arabic and some other languages. But you're right that English 't' and 'd' are pronounced in the same part of the mouth exactly as a flapped 'r' in languages such as Spanish and Japanese.
What's really funny to me is, that I actually taught myself exactly this several years ago by just trying some things and thinking "hey, this sounds close enough". Though I didn't really know for sure up until now that it was actually the exact correct technique. This actually makes me kinda proud haha
Very useful! Thank you very much for this detailed explanation and for providing more examples via that wikipedia link. It's a great relief to me knowing that I've already used this R type previously without actually knowing that it's the same kind of R that is used in the japanese language. So, this means, I just have to practice my pronunciation and just become more confident in loudly speaking in japanese. Once again, thank you very much!
Thank you for putting in the description this wikipedia link. It helped me to understand this sound because it turned out that it exists in my native language which is Polish:)
Great:) I got a comment from a Polish person saying the Japanese R doesn’t exist in Polish. Because of your comment, I checked the Wikipedia page again. Then, it was there!!! The R as in “który” right? Dziękuję for the info. I’m gonna let that person know!
@@campanasdejapanese Yes, although it's a bit tricky because you just get the "r" sound ("ry" isn't a syllable in Japanese). I advise this person to change the word to "która" (which also exists in Polish) and then gradually reduce the first sounds -> która - tóra - óra - ra. I'm not sure it's exactly the same as Japanese "ra" but it's a good place to start to at least understanding this "r" syllables pronunciation
This is the best video. 100% agree with the Spanish R. L is from the Chinese influence and is what native Chinese speakers use as part of their accent. So, maybe Chinese people speaking Japanese say La Li Lu Le Lu for all of the syllables. Native Japanese speakers will use a mix, especially depending on their prefecture of origin.
I love your videos so much. As someone who is starting to learn japanese I wanted to learn how to pronounce proper r and n sounds in Japanese and your videos makes it so much easier to understand and be successful producing the sound.
Excellent! Very helpful and easy to understand. I just want to ask, how I could write letter r without consonant in the middle of my name? Or is there way to do it in Japanese language?
Very good video. I always was saying "ru" with the same tongue position as with the "ri" sound. Now I actually understand what I was doing wrong, thank you very much! Instant subscriber!
From a Spanish prospective I noticed that the following sounds as typed: ら = ra, り= di, る = ru, れ = de, ろ = ro. If I am wrong I like to have a conversation about and learn together. Thank you for every one's time.
Thanks for that explanation. However at 2:32 that sounds like [da] instead of [ra] for me. Anyhow I think I can make an r-sound that is similar enough now.
I had super hard trouble with this, but then realized when i say "arrigato" im saying it right. Some reason saying "ri" by itself is challenging but syaing "ari" is easier. Also worked with adding the other r sounds, (ra, ri, ru re, ro). Gonna try to be able to say it by itself.
To me, the "r" sound in Japanese sounds almost like a soft "d" that we have in Spanish ( or the tt in butter). So, if I pronounce it like that, am I pronouncing it correctly? I will look at the wikipedia site you mentioned, being a Spanish speaker. Thank you for the clarification.
Thank you for the video. Are these ever used on their own or are they always contained within a word? I ask because I can pronounce them if they are in a word, but they sound off when I say them on their own, so I'm not sure if I should practice saying them on their own.
Good point, and for each r+vowel combination, examples of words where it is at the beginning of a word, as well as between two vowels would be helpful. Thank you sensei.
I understand that the r row is pretty similar to english D words, but for example, roku, i still hear that as a clear r in my head.. ive been trying to figure out how to get that sound right or if im mishearing it, cause i swear some words are r and some are d
@@campanasdejapanese yup, I hear it as a solid d. I've looked into it past couple days and learned that there are two tongue placements to do an r, bunched and retroflex, and I'm bunched. So it could be that my brain is just trained to hear that semi retroflex way to do a Japanese R as an English la or da since the tongue placement is almost the same. Been trying to think of ways to resolve this problem lol. I started practicing the retroflex R last night and then tried the Japanese R, and I feel like I'm close to getting it right, but I really wish I had a native speaker to talk to and tell me if I'm getting close or not.
@@Triobian When I pronounce the Japanese R, I don’t flip my tongue tip up like when you make the retroflex R, so I don’t know if that works. But if you think you are getting the hang of it, that’s the way to go!! This is a great video since the Japanese R and Spanish R are the same alveolar tap sound. Please check it out when you have time: ruclips.net/video/j11Qy4dL67g/видео.html
@@campanasdejapanese good reference video. I believe that's what I'm doing now that I've practiced retroflex R. My tongue and brain have figured out that you can make the r sound other ways now. Tongue on that ridge, start the r sound like with doing retroflex, and then flick the tongue down like a t. I feel like that's close. Certainly feels closer than English ra ri ru or la li lu
latin americans does a post alveorar r and spaniards does rolling r in certain accents, thats a point to clarify, the japanese s also exist in spanish but only in the one from spain
I'm brazilian, for me, Japanese R sounds sometimes like portuguese R and sometimes like a L, i'm kinda used to that but it's still a bit weird to me... like in "arigatou", sometimes i see some japanese people saying ARIGATOU and some ALIGATOU... same happen with other words, like kokoro, kirei... can i use both interchangeably?
You're definitely right. I hear Japanese people switch it up all the time. Sometimes its closer to L or even the actual english L. Songs usually use a more L sounding sound. From what I've seen, some words or combinations of sounds tend to be closer to L than Japanese R. It's frustrating for sure because I think Japanese people can't tell the difference, so it becomes hard to follow for people that can hear the difference. Luckily I know how to make both types of sounds but its hard to know when to use which.
Yeah I'm an English speaker conversational but not fluent in Spanish and I try out my Japanese whenever I'm in Japan, and I don't think the Spanish and Japanese 'r' sounds are exactly or the same or at least not always...
Thank you so much! Is there any way to get those worksheets you created? I'd be willing to post them in a free file share website and share the link with you so you can share it in this video. :)
Awesome video! I learned from this. Just a question though... Why do other people pronounce らりるれろ similarly like "La Li Lu Le Lo"? I can also hear that sometimes, some do not pronounce the Flap T when pronouncing らりるれろ.
Thank you for watching! Glad to hear that:) I’ve never felt like that before! But I don’t know how the Japanese R sounds to different people with different native languages, so this is just my opinion. The Japanese R (voiced alveolar tap) and the L sound (voiced alveolar lateral approximant) may sound similar because the only difference is the manner of articulation. And the tongue shapes for both sounds are pretty similar. But when you pronounce the Japanese R with the L sound, I can tell the difference. They’re somewhat similar sounds to me too, but I can perceive both sounds as separate sounds. The English Flap T and the Japanese R are phonetically the same sound. With that said, I can think of some reasons why they sound different. The English flap T sound only occurs between vowels or after the r and the n sounds in English. Maybe that’s why, when no sound comes before the Flap T like Japanese Ra, Ri, Ru, Re Ro, it may sound different especially to native English speakers. Also, English vowel sounds and Japanese vowel sounds are different. When the Japanese vowels come after the Flap T, it may sound different. Many more possibilities like mora-timed language vs. stress-timed language!!!
I'm confused if my tongue can even move like that (or I might also be thinking about it too much). I'm german and remember that I was once told that my "R" sounds weird (when I'm speaking normally in german), yet here I feel like my pronounciation is too close to the german R (maybe because I remember people saying that my R sounds weird, so I try to achieve the german R too much and overthink stuff). Feels like I'm hearing "Ra", "Ru", "Ro", but either "Re" or "De" (similar to how I'd probably pronounce D in german if i tried to say it fast and shorter on the "E" sound and like I'm combining the D with the E instead of , which I'm assuming to be the sound of "better") and "Ri" sound exactly like an english "D" to me. (at 3:59 it sounds like "ri" to me, but other than that I'm pretty much always hearing "D" or alternating "ri" and "D"). edit: Now after trying to listen to it somewhere I feel like on their own れ and で sound almost the same to me (with れ sounding a bit... softer? i really don't know how to describe it).
52 seconds in and you have already helped me so much! I've been watching videos for the last 40 minutes, trying to work out the correct tongue movements. Thank you!!!
Thank you sensei. is there much regional variation in the pronunciation of this phoneme, as there is with the various pronunciations of "r" in English, perhaps also allophonic variation within a single variety? I think I've heard some Japanese speakers pronouncing eg. word-initial "ra" as (possibly) a voiced lateral tap, perhaps with the blade of the tongue tapping the alv ridge. Does sthg like that sound possible?
I'm still a bit confused, it seems it's D in the beginning of the word, but R in the middle of the word (Disu vs saRa), but then I listen to Tatsuro Yamashita's music and he pronounces every R clearly as an L
No, only on RUclips!! I might create courses on platforms like Udemy in the future, but for now, I'm not thinking about it. But I'm very glad to hear you're interested. Thank you:)
I can do these sounds but i can't seem to pronounce words like だから、来ている、つれてくる. I can't explain it really. With these words or sentences it sounds like a 'd' or 'l'. It's like my tongue is overwhelmed with it.
Thank you very much indeed for the video, but I am sorry, I don't agree with you(I am actually asking if you could clear my doubt. ;) ) The flap t in amE is actually almost like D. The R in quiero is almost like Hindi र. These two are quite different. The other thing that confuses me is when you pronounce Japanese ra ri re ru ro alone, you pronounce them more like d. But when you pronounced it in a word like SARA, you pronounced it like we pronounce r in quiero, which understand the adjacent sounds can change a sound, but this change is huge. Also when some native speakers pronounce ra ri re ru ro, it sounds more like L, but yours sounded more like d, which raises a question whether there are two ways to pronounce ra ri re ru ro i.e. one more like L , the other one more like D. Do the native pronouncevra ri re ru ro in two ways?
I speak native spanish and have to disagree with that the japanese r is the same r sound of the spanish r in quiero, (I thought that was the rule before this) because not long ago I was singing along with Mariya takeuchi's music video ''plastic love'' here in youtube while reading the romanized lyrics and realized she pronounce all R's like L's. For instance the romanized word wakare sounds like wakale to me. Not sure if it is some kind of dialect or something I'm not aware of.
I will practice, but I certainly suck at the r sound. In some words it sounds like the flap t or whatever, but sometimes it doesnt depending on the word. Do you still use the flap t sound for ramen?
Basically, it is trilled (tapped -flapped) t. But in certain settings, that is under the influence of other sounds, l takes its place. As they don't have a l letter, the Japanese think that r and l are slightly different variants of the same sound. Well, they have a similar Japanese concept about green and light blue colors. For them light blue is shade of green. From these type of cultural misunderstandings spring bad explanations. Everyone non-Japanese, use the tapped t and don't fret over a minor pronunciation problem.
Let me help here for any American speakers: make a light “d” sound and tap your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you do. Will make the pronunciation spot on.
I don't know why so many sources are comparing the Japanese 'r' sounds to English 'l' or 'r' sounds. As an American, it sounds much closer to the 'd' sound. I personally hear the Japanese 'r' as a softer English 'd' sound.
Chinese language speakers seem to use L for R, and I think alot of English speakers don't know the difference between Chinese English speakers and other, Native Asian language English speakers.
OMG THIS TIP KINDA HELPTYSM
As a dutch person SAME!!! I her our casual d sound like ri sounds the same as die in germand or dutch. so if it's jsut the d sound I have been worried about nothing when pronounsing it. the L in dutch sound strong and llllloooonnnng and the R sound is one heck of a rollercoaster in dutch so hearing it now really well it sounds like a d to me.
The English d has the same point of articulation, so the r is basically just a d but without closing the tongue long enough to increase air pressure and create a plosive opening. And also with the voicing starting as the tongue approaches the alveolar ridge, not when it is released as for the d. Thus you get more of the continuous sound of the air friction as the tongue closes rather than the stop and release of a d. Voicing onset is probably the most crucial thing to making it sound like an r.
Its the sound of da😅
Finally. A proper explanation that doesn't 100% focus on the position of the tongue and gets to the point. You have saved me a headache!
This man, has saved me so much pain. All of my Japanese friends laugh at me trying to pronounce it still but i'm learning.
Perfectly explained, and I sincerely appreciate your style of video with clear, direct explanations, and with proper IPA terminology. This video is the first of yours I’ve seen so far, and now I’m going to look through all of your uploads.
Keep it up!
Thank you for watching! Glad you liked it:)
started learning japanese about a week ago... I was having trouble undestanding the sounds because I have hearing damage from working around heavy machinery... the visuals of tongue placement helped me IMMENSELY.
The examples of the japanese r sound in other languages helped a lot, THANKS!
在日の中国人です。“る”の正しい発音はとても難しいだと思って、先生の指導によって心に迷いがなくなって澄み切ったように感じています。本当にありがとうございます🙇♀️
こちらこそ、ご視聴頂きありがとうございます！
I don't know about everyone else but personally the word "hiragana" was easy to make the "r" sound so if you just practice saying it fast then slowly it's easier to figure out how to say it, so to say the "ra","ri","ru" I started saying hiragana but at the "r" sound i finished it saying "ra","ri","ru" (sorry if that made no sense this isn't my first language 😅)
I just wanna say thx a year late but, u were one of the main kick starter things that ended up helpin me, a person with an r lisp end up learning how to say the Japanese r correctly and now I'm speakin all the Japanese sounds basically like a native speaker with no problem at all, so once again thank you;)
I'm so glad that he used words that have the sound in different languages to give a better example.
Well it's useful if it matches your dialect, not the case for Southern American speakers like myself. Where we KEPT OUR R'S RHOTIC. Better has a T not a Japanese R. BEHTER
Now I can pronounce "r" japanese is better than before. Thank you so much❤❤
In my point of view the Japanese “r” is pronounced like between a “d” and a “t”
that seems too hard though? isnt the japanese r more soft?
lol.. the way you pronounce T and D is different compare to らりるれろ
I don't want to write more explanation
just try to watch this ruclips.net/video/hGZ9GwrNWmU/видео.html
Hmm maybe. "D" is voiced and "t" is unvoiced but aspirated. The Japanese "r" is definitely unaspirated but it is voiced, which at least by description does match "d". Then again it depends which dialect of English you're comparing against.
@@sesehoho8954 The only differences are voicing and aspiration. Place and manner of articulation are the same.
I pronounce my R as if I’m about to say L but just a slight tap on the roof with the tip of your tongue edit: (I’m talking about ridge on the roof or behind it, not to far tho. still comes out like a Japanese r)
I just watched 8 videos in a row looking for proper explanation and this is the only one that made it more clear for me.
ありがとうございますめい先生全部の発音の動画はすごく役に立つ
This was so helpful! I'm 13, already fluent in English and Spanish, but I'm trying to learn Japanese too (so I can be trilingual). I didn't know the Japanese R is the same sound as the soft Spanish R and the English use of the T sound in "better". It was great to have that comparison. This video is very well made. Thank you very much, muchisimas gracias, or arigatou gozaimasu!
Me too I can speak English and Spanish. Spanish is helping with Japanese.
When i was learning japanese and spanish at the same time I'd always subconsciously use the japanese r for the soft r in Spanish but i thought i was wrong when i used so i tried to stop lol but I never really did
How is it going?
That would be the American way of saying 'better', rather than the English, but yes as soon as I realised that it really helped. Still struggling with stringing consonants together, but practise makes perfect!
English and German for me. Pero, jo Halbo un poco espanol. Trying to learn Japanese too, because Spanish is just too much harder XD
As an English person, this is sounding like a 'd' rather than an 'r'. I'll keep trying - very helpful video. Subscribed!
It should. It's in the same position as the d sound. If you speak North American English, it's the same as the d and t in words like better
That’s what I’m saying !! Lol
It does seem to be that point where it could be r or L or d, yes.
Same.
@@michaelmam1490 Problem is my tongue doesn't know how to do that, as described, at the start of words. And we when he does it himself at the start of words, I hear a hard 'd". I hear him do what he describes in the middle of words. I'm sure it's how my ears are tuned, but I just hear a 'd".
Finally someone who doesn't associate it directly with the L sound so strongly! I'm puertorrican therefore I speak spanish so it was really easy for me to learn the correct pronunciation from the get go. Now I'm not one to comment on the subject since I'm still on baby steps at learning grammar and basic vocabulary but I always found it kind of annoying how other teachers just straight up kept saying la, li, lu, le, lo instead of just comparing it to a soft D sound (let's say soft D is ~d so it would be ~da, ~di, ~du, ~de, ~do ). Sorry for the small rant.
I have always had trouble pronouncing べんり because I didn't know り uses a different part of your tongue. This was very helpful, thank you!
I’ve watched a few videos on this topic but still struggled to pronounce the Rs until I found this one. Thanks! I appreciate the clear direct information.
Thank you so much! This video was super helpful. What helped me learn how to pronounce the 'th' sound in English was knowing how my mouth had to move in order to make that sound, so I appreciate that you explained that. And knowing that I pronounce those sounds in everyday words of my native language worked like a shortcut to get them right. Again, thank you and I hope you have a good day!
Thank you for watching! Glad it was helpful to you. Hope you have a great day too:)
+1
This is hands down the best video on this subject. ありがとございます
Thank you for watching! Glad you liked it:)
う
You make the best pronunciation videos! Most teachers don’t do a good job teaching pronunciation. Your points on tongue placement reduced my accent greatly!
Thank you. Glad you liked it!
My mother tongue is Polish (a Slavic language). Unfortunately we don't have this sound. We use a hard 'r'. Everytime I speak Japanese I'm afraid that my too harsh 'r' is noticeable. This helped me to understand the theory but my tongue still wants to pronounce this sound harder.
Thank you for watching! Try not to blow air when the tip of the tongue taps the alveolar ridge because the trilled R (Polish R) is the sound produced by blowing air and making the tip of the tongue vibrate. Say “ららららら” consciously using the tip of your tongue and not blowing air!
Hope this helps:)
Native English speaker here and It's only this week that I have been able to pronounce this "r". It's not really an "r" as much as it is a "d". Record yourself saying sada and while it definitely sounds like you're saying sada at the time, when you play it back it sounds like sara.
I got a comment from another Polish person saying there’s the Japanese R in Polish. Seems like the R as in “który” is the same sound as the Japanese R! Dziękuję!!!
@@campanasdejapanese Oh you're right! I've learned the pronunciation of Japanese r already. Thank to you a lot! Japanese language is a very popular language to learn here in Poland, so don't be surprised if there are many people from Poland trying to learn Japanese haha
@@johnmd2263 The "r" sounds across languages vary greatly. More than any other sound. In fact the exact same sound which is regarded as an 'r' in French is regarded as 'gh' in Arabic and some other languages. But you're right that English 't' and 'd' are pronounced in the same part of the mouth exactly as a flapped 'r' in languages such as Spanish and Japanese.
It made sense once I followed your examples. Thank you.
Thank you :)) my dad is asian, indian, and black, and I want to be bilinigual to show my family/friends. This was a great explanation
Hands down best explanations on common sticking points 🙌
What's really funny to me is, that I actually taught myself exactly this several years ago by just trying some things and thinking "hey, this sounds close enough". Though I didn't really know for sure up until now that it was actually the exact correct technique. This actually makes me kinda proud haha
Very useful! Thank you very much for this detailed explanation and for providing more examples via that wikipedia link. It's a great relief to me knowing that I've already used this R type previously without actually knowing that it's the same kind of R that is used in the japanese language. So, this means, I just have to practice my pronunciation and just become more confident in loudly speaking in japanese. Once again, thank you very much!
It's so helpful and useful. Thank you very much indeed
Thank you for putting in the description this wikipedia link. It helped me to understand this sound because it turned out that it exists in my native language which is Polish:)
Great:) I got a comment from a Polish person saying the Japanese R doesn’t exist in Polish. Because of your comment, I checked the Wikipedia page again. Then, it was there!!! The R as in “który” right? Dziękuję for the info. I’m gonna let that person know!
@@campanasdejapanese Yes, although it's a bit tricky because you just get the "r" sound ("ry" isn't a syllable in Japanese). I advise this person to change the word to "która" (which also exists in Polish) and then gradually reduce the first sounds -> która - tóra - óra - ra. I'm not sure it's exactly the same as Japanese "ra" but it's a good place to start to at least understanding this "r" syllables pronunciation
Next time I get a comment from a Polish person, I’m just gonna copy and paste your comment! haha Thank you for your thoughtful explanation:)
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING THANK YOU
thank you so much for this 🥺
i really appreciate your work. can't believe that this is available for free...
thank you thank you thank you!!! 💝
Glad you like it!
so confused sometimes I hear the 'r' sound like 'd' but sometimes like 'l'...
This was very helpful and well made.
ありがとう🙏
ご視聴頂きありがとうございます！ Glad it was helpful:)
This is the best video. 100% agree with the Spanish R. L is from the Chinese influence and is what native Chinese speakers use as part of their accent. So, maybe Chinese people speaking Japanese say La Li Lu Le Lu for all of the syllables. Native Japanese speakers will use a mix, especially depending on their prefecture of origin.
I love your videos so much. As someone who is starting to learn japanese I wanted to learn how to pronounce proper r and n sounds in Japanese and your videos makes it so much easier to understand and be successful producing the sound.
This video helped a whole lot! Thank you
Excellent! Very helpful and easy to understand. I just want to ask, how I could write letter r without consonant in the middle of my name? Or is there way to do it in Japanese language?
Very good video. I always was saying "ru" with the same tongue position as with the "ri" sound. Now I actually understand what I was doing wrong, thank you very much!
Instant subscriber!
Thank you for watching! Glad it was helpful:)
From a Spanish prospective I noticed that the following sounds as typed: ら = ra, り= di, る = ru, れ = de, ろ = ro. If I am wrong I like to have a conversation about and learn together. Thank you for every one's time.
Very well explained and straight-forward!
I am from Czech Republic. We have absolutely sharp R, it is not like in English, but sharp. So we have to learn many different "R" 😅
This was very helpful, thank you!!
Thank you for watching!! Glad to hear that:)
Well depend, in Japan there a lot of variants but the most common are ɽ and ɾ
This helped me do much! Thank you so much! Subscribed, looks look you have a lot of great Japanese learning videos!
this actually helped out of all the videos.
ありがとうございます
こちらこそ、ご視聴いただきありがとうございます！
Thanks for that explanation. However at 2:32 that sounds like [da] instead of [ra] for me. Anyhow I think I can make an r-sound that is similar enough now.
Nice MGS reference
I had super hard trouble with this, but then realized when i say "arrigato" im saying it right. Some reason saying "ri" by itself is challenging but syaing "ari" is easier. Also worked with adding the other r sounds, (ra, ri, ru re, ro). Gonna try to be able to say it by itself.
Thank you so much, your video was so easy to understand unlike the other videos.
Glad to hear that!
To me, the "r" sound in Japanese sounds almost like a soft "d" that we have in Spanish ( or the tt in butter). So, if I pronounce it like that, am I pronouncing it correctly? I will look at the wikipedia site you mentioned, being a Spanish speaker. Thank you for the clarification.
Thank you for the video. Are these ever used on their own or are they always contained within a word? I ask because I can pronounce them if they are in a word, but they sound off when I say them on their own, so I'm not sure if I should practice saying them on their own.
Good point, and for each r+vowel combination, examples of words where it is at the beginning of a word, as well as between two vowels would be helpful. Thank you sensei.
I understand that the r row is pretty similar to english D words, but for example, roku, i still hear that as a clear r in my head.. ive been trying to figure out how to get that sound right or if im mishearing it, cause i swear some words are r and some are d
Thanks for watching! In this video, I don’t say a word about the English [d] sound (Voiced alveolar stop). You mean the English flap t?
@@campanasdejapanese yup, I hear it as a solid d. I've looked into it past couple days and learned that there are two tongue placements to do an r, bunched and retroflex, and I'm bunched. So it could be that my brain is just trained to hear that semi retroflex way to do a Japanese R as an English la or da since the tongue placement is almost the same. Been trying to think of ways to resolve this problem lol.
I started practicing the retroflex R last night and then tried the Japanese R, and I feel like I'm close to getting it right, but I really wish I had a native speaker to talk to and tell me if I'm getting close or not.
@@Triobian When I pronounce the Japanese R, I don’t flip my tongue tip up like when you make the retroflex R, so I don’t know if that works. But if you think you are getting the hang of it, that’s the way to go!! This is a great video since the Japanese R and Spanish R are the same alveolar tap sound. Please check it out when you have time: ruclips.net/video/j11Qy4dL67g/видео.html
@@campanasdejapanese good reference video. I believe that's what I'm doing now that I've practiced retroflex R. My tongue and brain have figured out that you can make the r sound other ways now. Tongue on that ridge, start the r sound like with doing retroflex, and then flick the tongue down like a t. I feel like that's close. Certainly feels closer than English ra ri ru or la li lu
latin americans does a post alveorar r and spaniards does rolling r in certain accents, thats a point to clarify, the japanese s also exist in spanish but only in the one from spain
I'm brazilian, for me, Japanese R sounds sometimes like portuguese R and sometimes like a L, i'm kinda used to that but it's still a bit weird to me... like in "arigatou", sometimes i see some japanese people saying ARIGATOU and some ALIGATOU... same happen with other words, like kokoro, kirei... can i use both interchangeably?
You're definitely right. I hear Japanese people switch it up all the time. Sometimes its closer to L or even the actual english L. Songs usually use a more L sounding sound. From what I've seen, some words or combinations of sounds tend to be closer to L than Japanese R. It's frustrating for sure because I think Japanese people can't tell the difference, so it becomes hard to follow for people that can hear the difference. Luckily I know how to make both types of sounds but its hard to know when to use which.
Yeah I'm an English speaker conversational but not fluent in Spanish and I try out my Japanese whenever I'm in Japan, and I don't think the Spanish and Japanese 'r' sounds are exactly or the same or at least not always...
Thank you so much! Is there any way to get those worksheets you created? I'd be willing to post them in a free file share website and share the link with you so you can share it in this video. :)
Very useful, thank you!
Awesome video! I learned from this.
Just a question though... Why do other people pronounce らりるれろ similarly like "La Li Lu Le Lo"?
I can also hear that sometimes, some do not pronounce the Flap T when pronouncing らりるれろ.
Thank you for watching! Glad to hear that:) I’ve never felt like that before! But I don’t know how the Japanese R sounds to different people with different native languages, so this is just my opinion. The Japanese R (voiced alveolar tap) and the L sound (voiced alveolar lateral approximant) may sound similar because the only difference is the manner of articulation. And the tongue shapes for both sounds are pretty similar. But when you pronounce the Japanese R with the L sound, I can tell the difference. They’re somewhat similar sounds to me too, but I can perceive both sounds as separate sounds. The English Flap T and the Japanese R are phonetically the same sound. With that said, I can think of some reasons why they sound different. The English flap T sound only occurs between vowels or after the r and the n sounds in English. Maybe that’s why, when no sound comes before the Flap T like Japanese Ra, Ri, Ru, Re Ro, it may sound different especially to native English speakers. Also, English vowel sounds and Japanese vowel sounds are different. When the Japanese vowels come after the Flap T, it may sound different. Many more possibilities like mora-timed language vs. stress-timed language!!!
@@campanasdejapanese I see! There are more things for me to learn in Japanese. ありがとうございます！^^
i speak american english and is trying to learn japanese, this helped
when he said “English speakers you already know” I literally said “we do🤨⁉️”😭😭
lmffaooo
I'm confused if my tongue can even move like that (or I might also be thinking about it too much).
I'm german and remember that I was once told that my "R" sounds weird (when I'm speaking normally in german), yet here I feel like my pronounciation is too close to the german R (maybe because I remember people saying that my R sounds weird, so I try to achieve the german R too much and overthink stuff).
Feels like I'm hearing "Ra", "Ru", "Ro", but either "Re" or "De" (similar to how I'd probably pronounce D in german if i tried to say it fast and shorter on the "E" sound and like I'm combining the D with the E instead of , which I'm assuming to be the sound of "better") and "Ri" sound exactly like an english "D" to me. (at 3:59 it sounds like "ri" to me, but other than that I'm pretty much always hearing "D" or alternating "ri" and "D").
edit: Now after trying to listen to it somewhere I feel like on their own れ and で sound almost the same to me (with れ sounding a bit... softer? i really don't know how to describe it).
That two years of High School Spanish is finally paying off!
52 seconds in and you have already helped me so much! I've been watching videos for the last 40 minutes, trying to work out the correct tongue movements. Thank you!!!
So all I got from this is that it's sometimes R, sometimes L, sometimes T and sometimes D - even just when demonstrating the same sound multiple times
Best video on the topic, thank you!
Thank you sensei. is there much regional variation in the pronunciation of this phoneme, as there is with the various pronunciations of "r" in English, perhaps also allophonic variation within a single variety? I think I've heard some Japanese speakers pronouncing eg. word-initial "ra" as (possibly) a voiced lateral tap, perhaps with the blade of the tongue tapping the alv ridge. Does sthg like that sound possible?
Idk man Japanese R seems more much softer that Spanish R in quiero, in fact sounds more like a d
I’ve talked to many Mexicans and some Panamanians. We all agreed they’re the same sound. Also, the IPA says phonetically it’s the same sound.
I still can't tell the difference between it and [l]...
Thank you for explaining 😭✨🙌🏽
I'm still a bit confused, it seems it's D in the beginning of the word, but R in the middle of the word (Disu vs saRa), but then I listen to Tatsuro Yamashita's music and he pronounces every R clearly as an L
This is the best video! |The best! I really suck at this, but a couple of times I made it! The best video, right here. Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Very good information ☺️ wow
Very, very interesting. Thanks.
Do you have kanji worksheets?
Same as Greek 'r'- thanks as Greek is my first language.
The best video on the topic, thank you so much!!!
Thank you for watching!!! Glad you liked it:)
@@campanasdejapanese I love it! In fact, do you have any N5 courses in Udemy or other similar platforms? I would love to enroll
No, only on RUclips!! I might create courses on platforms like Udemy in the future, but for now, I'm not thinking about it. But I'm very glad to hear you're interested. Thank you:)
Yey for being a native spanish speaker, one minus concern
I can do these sounds but i can't seem to pronounce words like だから、来ている、つれてくる. I can't explain it really. With these words or sentences it sounds like a 'd' or 'l'. It's like my tongue is overwhelmed with it.
I heard ...ra ri ru re ro like da di do de do
Am i right...😭I wanna sing correctly in Japanese but i have big problem R
I've listened to your song, and your pronunciation of the Japanese R sound is great😉
@@campanasdejapanese honto ni😱
@@campanasdejapanese arigataou 😁
Da ,di ,du ,de ,do is it correct I am confused about r 😥
But now I need to figure out how to differentiate d and r sounds
for some reason i can do it fine with most spanish but its hard to do with a lot of japanese words
Thank you very much indeed for the video, but I am sorry, I don't agree with you(I am actually asking if you could clear my doubt. ;) )
The flap t in amE is actually almost like D.
The R in quiero is almost like Hindi र.
These two are quite different.
The other thing that confuses me is when you pronounce Japanese ra ri re ru ro alone, you pronounce them more like d.
But when you pronounced it in a word like SARA, you pronounced it like we pronounce r in quiero, which understand the adjacent sounds can change a sound, but this change is huge.
Also when some native speakers pronounce ra ri re ru ro, it sounds more like L, but yours sounded more like d, which raises a question whether there are two ways to pronounce ra ri re ru ro i.e. one more like L , the other one more like D. Do the native pronouncevra ri re ru ro in two ways?
Thank you!!!
Thank You.
Thanks a lot my friend!
Subscribed!
🤙🏻
Спасибо . Очень понятно разъяснил . Будем тренироваться дальше .
Спасибо за просмотр. Я был бы счастлив, если бы вы могли так сказать! ! !
Is it true that r in pero exactly the same in japanese r thank you for this vidéo
I speak native spanish and have to disagree with that the japanese r is the same r sound of the spanish r in quiero, (I thought that was the rule before this) because not long ago I was singing along with Mariya takeuchi's music video ''plastic love'' here in youtube while reading the romanized lyrics and realized she pronounce all R's like L's. For instance the romanized word wakare sounds like wakale to me. Not sure if it is some kind of dialect or something I'm not aware of.
感謝 します🩷🩷
If you pronounce れ when you let go of your tongue, you have to move it to the え position, right?🙇お願いします。
Yes, that's right!
@@campanasdejapanese ありがとうございます❤️🔥🙇
So I’ve been doing it correctly when I use the Spanish R sound?
Yes!
the r sound is called the whatever rhotic
it sounds like a 'd' sound to me when i listen to it and when i try to recreate it, it sounds like a 'd'
is that right??
I will practice, but I certainly suck at the r sound. In some words it sounds like the flap t or whatever, but sometimes it doesnt depending on the word. Do you still use the flap t sound for ramen?
Yes!
Well in our urdu we have both English "R" and Japanese "R" like آر and آڑ
Basically, it is trilled (tapped -flapped) t. But in certain settings, that is under the influence of other sounds, l takes its place. As they don't have a l letter, the Japanese think that r and l are slightly different variants of the same sound.
Well, they have a similar Japanese concept about green and light blue colors. For them light blue is shade of green.
From these type of cultural misunderstandings spring bad explanations.
Everyone non-Japanese, use the tapped t and don't fret over a minor pronunciation problem.
I was not expecting a video about the Patriots but okay.
Let me help here for any American speakers: make a light “d” sound and tap your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you do. Will make the pronunciation spot on.
NOT the roof (palate). The gum ridge.