| Hiragana | Phoneme | Pronunciation | Description
|
|---|
 | /ra/ | "ra"
| Japanese "r" + Japanese "a".
Japanese "r" is quite different from English "r". It is more similar to English "l".
When you pronounce English "l", you touch a few teeth with the tip of your tongue.
To pronounce Japanese "r", broaden your tongue and touch hard part of the mouth above upper teeth.
You can shut the mouth with the tongue. In that case, Japanese "r" sounds almost like "d" to English speakers, but they are different. American /t/ in water sounds /r/ to native Japanese speakers.
|
 | /ri/ | "ri"
| Japanese "r" + Japanese "i".
|
 | /ru/ | "ru"
| Japanese "r" + Japanese "u".
|
 | /re/ | "re"
| Japanese "r" + Japanese "e".
|
 | /ro/ | "ro"
| Japanese "r" + Japanese "o".
|
/hanami'/.
