Learn the Katakana R column
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| Hi everyone! Welcome to BASIC JAPANESE WRITING. The fastest, easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese alphabet! |
| You've learned these 35 katakana characters from the previous lessons. |
| In this lesson where skipping ahead to the R column where you'll learn five new katakana characters. |
| ラリルレロ |
| The first katakana character for this lesson is ラ. ラ. |
| Try to think of ラ as a ROCKING CHAIR. |
| Katakana ラ is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke is a horizontal line. |
| The second stroke starts as a longer horizontal line parallel to the first stroke. It then turns sharply and makes a curved diagonal line going down until the bottom center. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Next up is the katakana character リ. リ. |
| リ looks exactly like its hiragana counterpart but without the "hane" part. |
| Katakana リ is written in 2 strokes. |
| Katakana リ is written just like its hiragana counterpart but without the hane so the first stroke is just a vertical line going down. |
| The second stroke starts at the same height of the first stroke. Draw a longer stroke going down, curving to the left. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| The third one is the katakana ル. ル. |
| To remember this character, think of it as the ROOTS of a tree. |
| Katakana ル is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke starts as a straight vertical line then it curves slightly to the left. |
| The second stroke starts as a vertical line to the right of the first stroke. It turns sharply when reaching the bottom and makes a short curved diagonal line. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| This is the katakana character レ. レ. |
| Think of レ as a RAZOR blade. |
| Katakana レ is written in 1 stroke. |
| Start by drawing a vertical line, then at the bottom, turn and make a short curved diagonal line. |
| It is a wider version of the second stroke of katakana ル. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| And our final character for this lesson is the katakana ロ. ロ. |
| ロ looks like a ROBOT'S mouth. |
| Katakana ロ is written in 3 strokes. |
| The first stroke is a straight vertical line. |
| The second stroke starts where the first stroke starts. It goes to the right, then turns sharply and goes straight down. |
| The third stroke is a horizontal line that closes up the box. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Let's see all the characters again. ラ, リ, ル, レ, ロ. |
| Quiz time! |
| Now, let's review what you've learned. I'll show you a character or a word and give you time to say them. Ready? |
| ル. |
| で. |
| ロ. |
| ゴ. |
| ま. |
| ラ. |
| メ. |
| ホテル. This means "hotel." |
| トイレ. This means "the toilet." It's best to remember this one if you're going to Japan. |
| テレビ. It means "TV." As you can see it's short for "television." |
| カラオケ. It's the popular Japanese pastime - "karaoke." |
| イギリス. イギリス is the "United Kingdom." |
| アルバイト. It means "part-time work." |
| プロポーズする. This means "to propose marriage." |
| クレジッドカード. This means "credit card." Japanese people wouldn't understand if you just say "card" so make sure to say the whole thing - クレジッドカード. |
| Great job! Do you know what the ultimate flashcard game for reading hiragana and katakana is? Try doing Japanese karaoke! You'll need to read the characters fast in order to sing properly. I suggest starting with some slow songs first! |
| Ok, let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned. |
| In this lesson, you learned ラ, リ, ル レ, and ロ. Just like in the hiragana lesson, please take note that we skipped the Y column this time so that we could discuss all the Japanese digraphs in the next lesson. |
| よくできました！You've now mastered 86 Japanese characters. |
| Hungry in Japan? You'll learn some words to find in a menu like バーベキュー, チョコレート, ジュース and even メニュー itself in the next lesson when we tackle the Y column. |
| Before you go, practice writing the following words on your own! |
| [pause] |
| And to learn MORE Japanese, go to JapanesePod101.com. |
| Hey guys! Have you checked out any of our Japanese vocabulary lists? We have over 100 word lists for almost every occasion! Study specific words for certain holidays, movies, cultural events, and so much more! Click the link to see our entire library of Japanese word lists now! |
| See you in the next lesson! またね！ |
30 Comments
HideDo you know other words with these katakana?
Konnichiwa Joyce ジォイスさん
Thank you for asking. I checked some songs for you in order to find popular ballads among Japanese people.
I found those links.(There are links for the songs)
https://fine-ballad.studiorag.com/ballade-songs?disp=more
https://otokake.com/matome/DtqJUW
Hope you enjoy!
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
こんにちは! Would you please recommend some popular Japanese ballads? Who are some legendary singers in Japan?
ありがとうございます！
Hello ライカ (Lyka),
Thank you for posting.
Even if these are in a handwritten note/ letter, the context would help you to make a difference.
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Lena
Team JapanesePod101.com
I think it would be really confusing to see katakana ロ (ro) and kanji 口 (kuchi) in one sentence especially if it's hand written. As well as, katakana タ (ta) and kanji 夕 (yuu). These characters look similar at first glance.
Thank you for your comments, everyone! Sorry we didn't reply earlier.
>こんにちは、Evaさん
よろしくおねがいしますね😄
>こんにちは、Adamさん
どういたしまして。We are glad to hear that our lesson helped you👍
>Hi コーイ,
To be exact, the pronunciations of ラリルレロ are different from R and L. The following video would help you.
Ask a Japanese Teacher! Is the Japanese R like an English R or L?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ERE23YP88
>Hi Santiago,
If you are interested in Japanese songs, you would like the following video.
Japanese Children's Song | アニメソング | おにのパンツ + どんぐりころころ | COMPILATION 10 HOURS | 童謡
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAMmsMsdzo
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
Could you recommend some karaoke website or songs to practice?, as Risa said. 👍
Sorry, I made a mistake in the previous comment. I am wondering if "ル" is pronounced with an "R" sound.
Thanks again!
こんにちは,
I heard from the video above that in these "ラ リ レ ロ" the "R" sound is pronounced like "L" sound or something between "R" and "L". But for "ロ", I heard "R" sound. Did I misunderstand anything?
Thanks you.
ありがとうございます！I find the letter associations and the words at the end so helpful. テ is a character I always get stuck on, but remember "telephone" everytime.
こんにちは。
私はエヴァです。私のしゅんしんはスロバキアです。
I'm Eva. I'm from Slovakia. 😁