Katakana Letter Ru

Katakana Letter Ru at U+30EB represents the Japanese mora ru, pronounced roughly like a light “roo” with the Japanese flap r. It is part of the Katakana block and is a phonetic kana character, not a standalone symbol with a fixed meaning. In everyday Japanese, ル is used mainly in katakana words, especially loanwords, foreign names, brand names, and technical terms. Examples include ルール for “rule,” ホテル for “hotel,” and ブラジル for “Brazil,” where it records sound rather than meaning. It also appears in native Japanese contexts when katakana is chosen for emphasis, labels, animal sounds, scientific naming, or stylistic effect, much as italics or small caps might be used in English. In dictionaries, language lessons, and transliteration tables, ル is taught as the katakana counterpart of the hiragana る, with both representing the same mora. Because Japanese r sounds do not match English r or l exactly, ル can correspond to either sound in borrowed words depending on the source word. That is why both “rule” and “hotel” can contain ル in Japanese spelling.