LLearn Japanese

Japanese R pronunciation?

I’m pronouncing it like a quick D sound, but I don’t know if that’s accurate. I’m unable to thrill my tongue so that’s out of the question. How do you guys do it?
EDIT: I’m not American, so I pronounce ‘tt’ like a normal t.

12 comments

  1. Honestly, when I took Japanese in college then I just used the American ‘r’ sound. We did oral exercises but there wasn’t a whole lot of focus on pronunciations or pitch accents. Just as long as the teacher and classmates could understand you, that was fine.

    Come to think of it, I wonder how this would sound to native Japanese ears. Presumably they’d still know what I’m saying? Would they find it annoying, or “exotic”, or stereotypical gaijin?

    But anyway, I do think a quick ‘d’ sound is probably a much better approximation than the American ‘r’ that I’ve been using.

    No idea what a trill is or how to acquire it. I might start trying the ‘d’ instead.

  3. It’s a quick tap of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, like when you pronounce an English ‘d’. At the start of a word, the ‘r’ sound can sometimes sound like an English ‘d’ or it can be virtually silent. In other cases it often sounds more like a mixture between ‘r’ and ‘l’.

    I wouldn’t worry about it too much – just learn the sounds of the words you learn (listening to native Japanese pronunciations of course).

    See [https://youtu.be/6-ERE23YP88](https://youtu.be/6-ERE23YP88)

  4. Luckily it’s not a trill, so it’s already out of the question.  😉

    We do use the Japanese R sound in English words (in North America at least!) – think of “butter.” The T sound isn’t sharp like in the word “term” and it’s not dull like in the word “dirt.” It’s sort of in between. That kind of tongue tap is what the Japanese R is. [This](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-r-sound/) might help clear it up. Good luck!

  5. It’s similar to the sounds of the Ts and Ds of “water,” “butter,” “ladder,” and “bottle” in a Northeastern American accent, specifically New York City.

    It’s also close to an unrolled Spanish R or an Italian R as in “Maria.”

    The R is a quick flap, starting closer to the D position, but made like an L. You might hear 便利 as “bendy.”

  6. If you’re an American, that quick ‘d’ sound you’re describing might be the alveolar tap. If it occurs in the ‘t’ in water or ‘battle’ and the ‘d’ in ‘paddle’, it’s probably that.

    In which case, yes, that alveolar tap is more or less the Japanese r. So if you can replicate that for the Japanese らりるれろ, you have a bypass for learning one of the more frustrating consonants.

  7. I once saw a Duolingo tip to pronounce a Japanese r like the d sound in ‘kitty’ and as a non-North American that honestly made me so mad and confused lmao.

  8. Japanese’s R comprises 2 different sounds.

    * first one is the voiced alveolar flap. It’s the so-called R of Spanish and Italian. It sounds really close to the ‘tt’ in lettuce (assuming a standard American accent)

    * second one is the voiced alveolar lateral flap. Basically, think of it as *hybrid* between the voiced alveolar flap above and the voiced lateral approximant consonant (Spanish and Italian’s L).

    As for alveolar trills (i.e. rolling your Rs), first master the tapped R. Then try the following trick I got from a speech therapist: jerk your head downwards as you pronounce a tapped R (be careful not to bite your tongue). After some practice you should feel a trill.

    As far as I know, the alveolar trill isn’t part of standard Japanese. You’ll find some masculine characters using it when they speak roughly.

    Disclaimer: I’m not an expert by any means. I’m just speaking from what I know.

  9. If you have an understanding of IPA, then it’s most commonly pronounced /ɾ/ or a voiced alveolar tap, and for words like 料理 where you have the ry sound it’s /ɾʲ/

    If you want to hear it pronounced, copy paste it to the website [here](http://ipa-reader.xyz) and click the “read” button.

  10. spanish SHORT-r is the closest western equivalent i know of, NOT the trill long-r

  11. i always see people comparing it to L, but to me it’s more like a D. Like a light D mixed with a bit of an L. words that start with りょ・りょう (Ryo/Ryou) are kind of difficult imo as an american tho. thats more like an R mixed with an L

    料理

    了解

    両替

    両親　

    etc etc.

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