Japanese for Morons-38: Pronunciation らりるれろ ra ri ru re ro

[ixsetf]

It is almost like an L but with the tongue touching further back in the mouth, so it is on that ridge thing which I forgot the name of >_>

[xNikkaX3]

The R is like, a mix or R, L and D... Lol.

[AnemicChia]

Arigato gozaimasu!

[juggy2006]

The sounding is like an R without the teeth touching the bottom lip and then a curling of the tongue for the L-ish sound. There may be no R or L in japanese but an english way of pronouncing it, that is how it sounds.

[ShionElpihasLevi]

thanks :D I was so confussed before haha

[JeremyB796]

the r is so close to the L sound...

its tricky >.<

[NowandLaterINC]

Ｙｏｕｒ　ｒｕ　ａｎｄ　ｒｏ　ａｒｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｓａｍｅ

Ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｄｅｓｃｒｉｐｔｉｏｎ！！

[Gimmeaflakeman]

@NowandLaterINC

Thanks!

Fixed.

Pronunciation

らりるれ ろ

ra ri ru re ro

[KellenMichellen]

My tongue doesn't like this :(

[R00TZSP]

Did she just go La li lu le lo.

She didn't didn't she. Cheeky :P

[takethatprunetracy]

@R00TZSP

Hahahaha....best comment ever!haha...

[Zannypants666]

It's a tongue roll, and it kills me!

[MrGuy1332]

it almost sounds like la, de, lu, e, do when they say it. The way they prounced it and the way you pronounced it sounded totally different to me.

[nielswolfgang]

it almost sounds like an l...it's like a mix

[matewek]

Most of us have a clear distinction between R and L in our languages so we instinctively want to nail down whether it's R or L sound. I think that if one happens to pronounce it more closely to our L sound it will go unnoticed by Japanese native speakers but not by most outsiders. Similar case with Polish for example. It doesnt matter if one pronounces Polish R like in Spanish word perro or pero because we don't have that distinction. Both versions could pass for a native Polish pronunciation.

[virileboy]

L vs. R he said it right at the end of the video - it is NEITHER and trying to confuse people by making funny combinations by adding "d" in there is just ridiculous. Listen to and copy native speakers. The person who mentioned its similarity to Spanish is correct - it is similar but only rolled once. There was a Mexican American student (bilingual) in my Japanese class and coming out of the gate his pronunciation was by far the best.

[MrStein10]

i see congested in the background

[superbe4tt]

Do you say it like that, everytime they are in a word.

Or just say it like when they are apart.

like... saying the kanji? ^^

[Hobbesuki]

I'm just wondering but the "ri" you have shown in this video....is not り but instead is rounded... why is that?

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Where?

[00kenchin]

Being a artist i think i can tell you, it's a font style. In fact **history** hiragana is quite feminine or concidered as such due to it's "roundness". I belive at one point in the edo period (i forget which showa) hiragana was used exclusively by women, and in fact a novelist actually wrote a book only using it.

[00kenchin]

Incidenly, i wrote a better answer than that

but cahracter limit. anywhoo,

びくたさま、こんばんわからNewYork。おれのまえわだんて­だが日本のなまえわけんしんです。

[00kenchin]

I'm going to be working my way into the youtube-j (日本) network. I'm on a pc so i'll make a vid on typing in japanese if you'd like, anyway just ask. I don't know nearly as much as you guys do but i'll teach what i know(My japanese teacher once said teaching is the best learning experience, as you realize how far you've come and how far you have to go.) lol

-けんしん

[virileboy]

@Hobbesuki

Kenchin is pretty much correct, although his/her dates are a little iffy. Hiragana came from a shortened and "cursivized" version of kanji and eventually evolved into the hiragana we have today. The rounded font used in the video is still sometimes used in Japan but is not standard - it is a font you find on computers just like you can find several different fonts for English.

[DieTigress]

@Hobbesuki

it's just the font he uses in the video.

[videofreek112]

@Hobbesuki It's just another font, like the pencil is not realy lifted of the paper when you write it

[greenlawnmover]

@Hobbesuki it's an typo isn´t it? That comes from how the "ri" is drawn, when written quickly the two lines blend together and this has become a "standars" with time i think, if that is what you wondered about?

[momothelemur]

@Hobbesuki It's a different font... that's it.

[i00u00ai]

Im with you biznarroz....

[bznarroz]

the first and last ones sound like L's and the ones in the middle sound like a mixture of and R and D

[ARCDBEACH]

I think guys and gals pronounce the "L-R-D"s differently. I still think the true pronouciation of the Kana is relative to the word spoken. "Nihongo ga sukoshi wa kare mas(u)!!!"

Right? Hey, I'mma moron - keep up

the vid-EOs!!!

[wehrmanj]

Being able to roll the tongue with those "r" sounds really helps, I'm sure if one could speak Spanish well that would help with it (I think).

That camera view where your head is cutoff is annoying, makes me constantly feel like I'm trying/straining to see the rest of your head!! ARGH

[KuuroKaze]

I know it doesn't really matter but I've seen somewhere that "It's a mixture of a "d" "r" and "l" sound" :]

Hope that helped ;]

[JessicaHalo]

The ultimate insight I have heard about the r/l debate... "If you're not saying it half way between an r and an l, you're not saying it right!"

[Gimmeaflakeman]

No. You must forget about R and L. They do not exist in Japanese. Just do it.

[ARCDBEACH]

"Do or Do Not, there is No Try, hmm."

[finapon]

I think it's easier when you're a native Spanish speaker! In spanish there are two ways of pronouncing the R:

1. "perro" <--is like a really exaggerated, rolled R

2. "orejera" <---kinda soft Rs, like ra ri ru re ro

This issue totally belongs to the FAQ of japanese language, so thank you :D

ps: your two guest appearances are cute ♡

[Shaguar97]

the pronunciation is like L&D at the same time so its like:

lda

ldi

ldu

lde

ldo

thats how i learned it...

[anfield22]

i rike this video

[chiaking223]

were u grown up in Japan?

[JonusDking]

At the end of lesson 15 you can listen to two (I'm assuming native) speakers say karaoke. I noticed that one woman leaned toward L and the other toward R, and Hiton was exactly in between. What I get from this is that it doesn't really matter which one it sounds closer to. Just go with what feels comfortable for you. My two cents. Don't spend it all in one place. lol R-chan

[omnistegan]

It really is an L vs. R death-match sometimes. Kinda like the が vs. は battles I sometimes see raging on Japanese learning forums. Of course someone always steps in and has a one sentence solution, saying it's just like "a" and "the" or something. Turns out everybody is wrong. STOP TRYING TO QUANTIFY JAPANESE IN ENGLISH. Honestly, it doesn't work. The reason it's Japanese and not English is because it's different, not because it's the same with different words.

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Yes! Thank you!

[Bleachallstarz]

i remembered this from james heisigs book its a mixture of l/r its wierd

good video

[NapalmXD]

I think it was me? maybe?

[73elephants]

Yeah, as others have said, it's a bit like an R, a bit like an L, and a bit like a D. I think for native English speakers, though, it would be simplest and least confusing to think of it as an L sound. If you say "la, li, lu, le, lo", it will always be comprehensible to a Japanese speaker, but if you say "ra, ri, ru, re, ro", your pronunciation might be unclear.

[teamtippmann]

ah cool its in hd but its hard to load though

[neoguy9090]

It's best approximated by the "tt" in butter or better in American English.

Though it seems pretty flexible.. since some people tend to pronounce it like L, especially when singing. But it never comes close to the American "r".

In linguistics terms, the Japanese "r" is an "alveolar flap", and the American English "r" is an "alveolar approximant".

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Too much thinking involved here.

[neoguy9090]

HAHA great point xD

I forgot the name of the series for a moment.

[chimera15]

it's rl sound. lol

[ImAlwaysR1ght]

I describe the japanese "R" as a mix between the english "r" "l" and "d"

It's like the tongue-flap sound Americans use to pronounce the double-t in butter

[mockingkitty]

Great Video...thank you for making it...very helpful

[draggt03]

HAHAH i love these videos lol. glad im not a moron yet lol. good refresher courses.

[coolixm14]

That's in metal gear solid

The La-li-lu-le-lo (Rarirurero).

[J4jackass]

Who Are the Patriots?

Hooray For being a fan of MGS series!!!!!

[commodore256]

They're dead... All twelve of them.

It happened about a hundred years ago...

[CuriouserNCuriouser]

ra ri ru re ro...

Japanese for Scooby-Doo! :D

[TheDutchGaijin]

What SlickWilly440 said. I think it's in between the 'l' and 'r' sound. Not a strong R sound, but not a L either.

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Like I said. Forget about which it's closer to. Just practice it and say it.

[apu000]

its juts like the spanish pronunciation ^^

[N0CT1S22]

ror i mean lol

lol

[010arman010]

lol cool

[Strifezilla]

pronouncing ryori is the hardest word too pronounce i tihnk

[Ido013]

I don't care whether it sounds like an R or L, but my pronunciation sounds like the woman in this video LOL

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Are you a woman?

[Ido013]

no that's actually the troubling part （^ω^;）

[Hansithe1]

sounds more like an L to me...

and im danish.. L is commonly used..

[DavePerry2012]

I agree. Sounds more like an L.

[SlickWilly440]

Thanks for the lesson.

I think it's in between the 'l' and 'r' sounds. By the way there is an extra る in the title, instead of ろ.

[Gimmeaflakeman]

Thanks! Fixed.