# ら — hiragana “ra”

ら is the hiragana character for the sound “ra”. It is written with 2 strokes, and in katakana the same sound is ラ.

- Reading: ra
- Strokes: 2
- Katakana: ラ

## How ら sounds

The Japanese r is one light tap of the tongue, somewhere between r, l and d.

## Don't confuse it with

う

## Words with ら

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| らいしゅう | raishuu | next week |
| らいねん | rainen | next year |
| らいげつ | raigetsu | next month |
| さようなら | sayounara | goodbye |
| かれら | karera | they |
| あたらしい | atarashii | new |

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From Moji Ninja (https://moji.ninja/), a free app for learning hiragana, katakana and the JLPT kanji from N5 to N1 with spaced repetition. Page: https://moji.ninja/hiragana-chart/ra/. Last updated 2026-11-01.