ra ri ru re ro

This character looks like half of a rabbit’s face, with the loop to the right being one of its cheeks. It’s spelled “ra” like the beginning of “rabbit”.

Imagine that this character is the two banks of a river. It’s spelled “ri” like the beginning of “river”.

Imagine that the small circle at the bottom of this character is a ruby. It’s spelled “ru” and sounds like the “ru” in “ruby”.

Imagine that a race has just ended and someone is waving a checkered flag in this motion. This character is spelled “re” and sounds like the “ra” at the beginning of “race”.

This character looks very similar to ru, but it’s missing the ruby. Imagine that the ruby was lost. This is spelled “ro”, and sounds like the Japanese pronunciation of the “lo” in “lost”.

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