Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "彼ら" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 彼ら in Japanese?

彼ら is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ka.ɾe.ɾa/. It means “they / them.” ka-re-ra, three even beats with two taps in a row — the hardest bit is keeping both of them light.

ka-re-ra, three even beats with two taps in a row — the hardest bit is keeping both of them light.

彼ら /ka.ɾe.ɾa/

karera

Keep the tempo constant across all three units, unaccented throughout. The back-to-back taps make evenness harder than usual, because English speakers instinctively slow down when a sound feels difficult. Keep the tempo constant and let the taps be quick and light rather than careful and heavy.

Listen: 彼ら

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Sound it out

ka Unaspirated k, short open a. Nothing pushed.

re First tap: the tongue tip strikes and releases in a single instant, then a short front e that doesn't drift upward.

ra Second tap, and the difficulty is that English has no habit of producing two of these consecutively. Reset the tongue completely between them — each is one independent contact, and neither should become a trill or a sustained r.

Hear it in a sentence

彼らは近くに住んでいます。

Karera wa chikaku ni sunde imasu.

They live nearby.

Listen: 彼らは近くに住んでいます。

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彼らは近くに住んでいます includes 住んで, where the ん before a d is realised with the tongue at the teeth-ridge and takes its own full beat — su-n-de, three morae. 近く just before it has a ku prone to devoicing. So the sentence pairs a whispered mora with a vowel-less one, both of which still count.

Where English speakers slip

Two English r's in a row is the trap: learners produce "ka-RAIR-ah," fusing them into one long rhotic stretch with a stressed middle. Japanese has two discrete, separate contacts with a full vowel between them. Slow the word right down, articulate re and ra as clearly distinct beats, then speed up while keeping both taps single.