How to make “r” sound less like “d”?

13 comments

1. That’s kind of how Japanese R sounds. A tip I guess is that d is a dental sound meaning the tongue touches the teeth. Japanese R doesn’t touch the teeth, but the gum ridge on the roof of the mouth just behind the front teeth.

2. My best advice is with the R, treat it sort of like a Spanish rolling R, but only once. The tip of your tongue kindof hits both the roof and the floor (?) of your mouth as opposed to the D sound which is just once at the top. Hope this helps!

3. Another thing that could help is articulating your ど more to contrast with the ろ. Like another commenter said, d- sounds are dentalized in Japanese so pay attention to how you articulate the sound while you practice.

   If you need help pronouncing r- sounds, the Japanese “r” is almost identical to the “t” sound in “bottle” or “water” in most dialects. Assuming you speak a dialect with that pronunciation, you could use that as a reference.

4. Slow, but steady. Speak slowly and practice building spoken speed.

5. D usually touches the tongue to the back of the upper front teeth. R is a much lighter touch, if it touches at all.

   So try pulling your tongue back a little more when you practice the R-line of mora.

   *Ra-ri-ru-re-ro.*

6. The best tip I saw is to practice saying “butter” with a super exaggerated southern accent, and just use the d/t sound from that

7. Does it sound like this to you, or is this feedback you’ve received? If people aren’t having trouble understanding you, I would avoid overthinking this.

8. It might sound kind of silly, but when you’re alone (because you’ll sound weird doing it if you’re not), just repeat らりろれるだぢどえづ over and over. At least that’s what I did, it made the r- and d- sound very distinct.

9. You’re doing the R wrong if you can’t do that. Keep listening, repeating, so on and so forth. It’s not hard. For the R in ろ just move the tip of your tongue to the top of your mouth to make a short rolling R sound.

10. easy, don’t say d

11. do do ‘l’o

    Whats your native language? I dont find it difficult at all

12. Can you record yourself pronouncing it?

13. I’m a portuguese speaker, and since japanese “r” sounds the same in my language, I can tell you that it sounds just like the word “little”.