Pronounce English Accurately

Video Text

/r/ is made by curling the tip of the tongue is curled much further back than we have done so far, up towards the roof of the mouth, the hard palate: /rə - rə - ərə - ərə/.

Here's the speech organs diagram.

The place of articulation is post-alveolar again - the tip of the tongue is far behind the alveolar ridge, further back than it was for /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ - now it is curled back and raised high up near the hard palate.

Because of the curling back of the tongue it is termed 'retroflex' - the tongue is 'flexed' back.

Like /w/, /r/ is an approximant - the tongue comes close to the hard palate but does not obstruct the airflow.

So /r/ is a voiced retroflex approximant.

/r/ is spelt and transcribed with the letter 'r'.

In standard British English, we cannot have /r/ in postvocalic position. That means when the letter 'r' follows a vowel in the spelling and does not start a following syllable.

An example is 'farm' - there is no 'r' sound.

This is one of the most striking differences between British and American English. American English has retained the historic pronunciation of postvocalic /r/, whereas it has been lost in Britain except in rural accents, primarily of the South West of England.

So a Devon farmer might talk of his 'farm' /fɑːrm/, but from you it should be 'farm' /fɑːm/.

Words with /r/ in initial position:

'rate'

'roof'

'raft'

'read, reed'

'roam'.

In medial position:

'arrange'

'orange'

'ferry'

'caring' - but not 'cared'

'marriage'

'parody'.

Here are some sentences with /r/ sounds:

Really, a right royal rollocking is what Roger requires … regularly.

It is very unreasonable to require the reporting of unreliable records.

Ignoring the restrictions imposed by the authorities, the risky research continued unregulated.

I will contrast /l/,/r/, and /n/ in the next lesson.