Ra Ri Ru

Hiragana 1

Chapter 16 · Ra Ri Ru

🌸 The R Row Begins — ら り る

The last big consonant row is r, with ら (ra), り (ri) and る (ru). That makes forty-one characters, and today you can read the words for cherry blossom, car, bird, and the two key verbs ある and いる ("to exist").

Forty-one down, five to go: れ, ろ, わ, を and ん.

✨ The Japanese "R" — A Tap of the Tongue

The Japanese "r" is neither an English "r" nor an "l". It's a quick tap of the tip of the tongue against the ridge behind your upper teeth, like the "d" in ladder or the "tt" in American butter. (Many Scottish speakers already make a similar tap in very.) Say "ladder" quickly and listen for that tap: that is the sound in ra, ri, ru, re and ro. Don't curl your tongue back like an English "r".

✨ Three New Characters — ら り る

📖 Read It — New Words

With forty-one characters, you can read all of these. Remember that each character is one beat.

🎎 Polite Verbs Ending in る — Two Groups

Verbs ending in る come in two groups, and they make the polite form differently. In the first group, you drop る and add ます. In the second, you change る → り and then add ます. For now, learn these as vocabulary; the conversation courses will explain how to tell the groups apart.

💬 Mini-Dialogs

✍️ Try It Yourself — れんしゅう

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.