らりるれろ — The R Row
Why the R row?
The R row introduces the single biggest pronunciation challenge for English speakers: the soft Japanese r. Don't roll it like a Spanish r and don't pronounce it like an English r — it's a single light tap of the tongue, almost between a soft 'd' and an 'l'. The R row also packs structural weight: る is the dictionary-form ending of every -ru verb (食べる taberu, 見る miru, 走る hashiru), り shows up in the polite negative ending 〜りません, and ろ appears in the casual imperative 〜ろ.
Pronunciation at a glance
Words you can read with the R row
With everything through the Y row plus らりるれろ, you can read a huge slice of everyday Japanese — including all -ru verbs in dictionary form. These words use only characters from the first nine rows of the chart.
What's next
After the R row, the final step is the small わ-row (わ を ん) — three characters that wrap up the chart. を is the object particle (pronounced o), and ん is the only standalone consonant in the chart, used at the end of syllables.