Japanese "b" pronunciation?
I've noticed that sometimes words like 奪われる for example would be pronounced as "uvarareru". It's gotten me thinking that perhaps the Japanese b sound is more like a combined b and v sound, like how "r" is a combination of r and l. So does anyone have any tips or possibly some links to how to pronounce this properly?

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Answer

Basically, we don't have the sound of C, F, R, V and "th" of English, though there are some that is heard like them. We write らりるれろ with R but it isn't pronounced as same as R of English, closer to L but a bit different either.

Back to about V, it's うばわれる with B of English. Or when you heard it, it is possibile that non-native spoke in Japanese. Anyway, we don't pronounce V for the Japanese words.

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奪 =  うば

there is no V in Japanese and it's equivalent is B..

Grave = Gureibu

For R and L its' different ..

Love = Rabu

Answer

I'd say they say b just like you do in english. Also, わ　is wa, no va :-)

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