# ラ — katakana “ra”

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

- Reading: ra
- Strokes: 2
- Hiragana: ら

## How ラ sounds

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

## Words with ラ

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ラジオ | rajio | radio |
| ライオン | raion | lion |
| ラケット | raketto | racket |
| ラグビー | ragubii | rugby |
| ランプ | ranpu | lamp |
| ランナー | rannaa | runner |

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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/katakana-chart/ra/. Last updated 2026-11-01.