520. The 5 R vowels of English

The R is one of the most challenging sounds in English, and in American English, there are actually two R sounds. The strong R that appears at the beginning of a word or before a vowel, as in red, around, or crazy. And then there is the R vowel sound, or soft R, that appears after a vowel, just like in car, where, here, and first. Now, in some dialects of English, this R is not pronounced, just the vowel. For example, British English, car, where, first. But in American English, you do pronounce the R at the end. If you wanna practice this particular sound in American English, this video is going to be a hyper-focused practice session to help you practice the 5 key R vowel sounds or soft R sounds And I'm going to give you example sentences for each sound, focusing on conversational phrases, daily life phrases, professional English, and also sentences from the heart. So all of that is going to be practiced for each vowel sound or our vowel sound that we're going to practice. Before we get started, if you're new to my channel, my name is Hadar. I'm a non-native speaker of English, and I am here to help you speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. I'm super passionate about teaching English in a clear and simple way. And I also love the mindset work and strategy work around it because we are real humans and we're not machines producing sounds. So we need to understand how we think and how we feel about speaking English as a second language. So I talk about all of that. You can check out my website at hadarshemesh.com for more content or follow me on social media for daily lessons. By the way, I'm hosting a free pronunciation masterclass. If you wanna learn more with me and you wanna understand the sounds, prosody, intonation, rhythm, stress, and how to not put so much effort into speaking English by optimizing your pronunciation, go to hadarshemesh.com/masterclass or just click the link below and join me. It's going to be great and it's absolutely free. All right, so let's get started. Now, before we go into the R vowels, let's talk about the R itself and how to pronounce To pronounce the R, the tongue has to exist in the middle of the mouth. So you lift the tongue up, the sides of the tongue need to touch the sides of the teeth right here, and the tip of the tongue is pointing forward, or it can point up or slightly to the back. It doesn't matter. What matters is what happens with the first half of the tongue, the one that is connected to the root of the tongue. And how it curves up and curls up to— it's like a little muscular ball in the back of your mouth that creates that deep, dark, weird sound of the R. R. You also want to round your lips a little bit for it. R. Red. Red. Er. Now, if you struggle with this sound, I have a lot of lessons about how to pronounce the R sound. So go check them out and then come back to practice R vowels. The first R vowel that we are going to practice is the R as in car. We start with an open AH sound. So you drop your jaw, you drop your tongue, relax your lips. Ah. And then after you hear the vowel sound, you lift the tongue up for the R. R. Now here's something super important that I want you to remember. The trickiest thing about R vowels, most of them, is that people tend to bring the tongue up to pronounce the R too soon. Car. And then this is what we hear. We don't hear a clean pronunciation of the AH sound before the R. Car. Car. If you lift the tongue up too soon, car, car, and then it's not clear if it's car, care, or cur. Right? So keep the tongue down, and only when you hear the vowel fully pronounced, then you lift the tongue up for the R. Car. Park. Start. Heart. Let's practice it in some daily life phrases. I parked the car too far and had to walk in the dark. Do it with me slowly. I parked the car too far and had to walk in the dark. What I like about this sound is that it has like an O-ish quality to it, like an O. It's not park the car in the dark, far, hard, right? It's a little bit more rounded, like it's, it's packed together. Parked. Right? Tie it up with a bow. I parked the car too far and had to walk in the dark. Another one. My heart wasn't in it from the start. Start. My heart wasn't in it from the start. It's not that hard once you get past the hardest part. It's not that hard once you get past the hardest part. Hardest, hardest part. Try to connect the words together. Good. All right, now let's try 3 professional phrases. The target was hard to hit, but the team worked smart. Smart. Let's do it again. The target was hard to hit, but the team worked smart. Worked is another R vowel. We'll do it at the end. Worked. A very common R vowel sound and the cause of a lot of confusion. So make sure you stay until the end for this one. The market shifted, and now we're back at the start. The market shifted, And now we're back at the start. 3 phrases from the heart. I worked so hard for so long. I worked so hard for so long. Starting over is hard, but staying stuck is harder. Harder. Make the D really light. Starting over. There's a flap T here. Starting over is hard, but staying stuck is harder. My heart was racing every time I started speak. My heart was racing every time I started to speak. Started, uh, I'm reducing and connecting. You can say started to speak, but if you want to reduce it a bit, Started to speak. Good. The next R vowel is 'air' as in 'dare.' So here we start with an 'e' sound. E, e, e. It's not a short 'e,' e, the way you might be pronouncing the 'e' sound in your language, but it's a bit more open. E, e, e. If you're Italian, then this is the E sound in your language. Eh, eh, eh. And then once you pronounce the E sound, tongue is down, don't lift it up, then lift it up for the R at the end. Air. Fair. Where. Care. 90% vowel, 10% R. Share. Notice that it's going to work perfectly fine without the R. Care. Share. There. Right? It's just a different dialect. So the word is clear. If you are really struggling with the R, you can just drop it. But if you want to keep it, just put it at the end. It's not 'were,' it's 'where,' because then it's going to sound like another word that we are going to talk about at the end. Fair. Where. Care. Very good. All right, let's practice daily life phrases. I wasn't aware there was a fare increase. I wasn't aware. I can drop the T here. I wasn't aware there was a fare increase. The fare increased. There was a fare increase. There's barely any air in here. Can we open a window? This is practically the sentence that my mom says every time she walks into a room. There's barely any air in here. Can we open a window? There's barely any air. There's barely air. There is barely any air in here. Can we open a window? I swear I left it somewhere over there. That might be a sentence I say a lot. I swear I left it somewhere Over there. O, O, over. I swear I left it somewhere over there. Professional phrases. We need to prepare carefully before we share this anywhere. We need to prepare carefully, not curfully, carefully before we share this anywhere. I'm aware that fairness is a concern, and I care about that too. I'm aware that fairness is a concern, and I care about that too. Can you clarify, clarify where we stand on the current affairs? Can you clarify where we stand on the current affairs? Clarify. So here we have the air sound, but then the R is also a strong R, so it's kind of like clarify, a little easier, I think. Sentences from the heart. Nobody prepared me for how much I'd care about getting it right. Nobody prepared me for how much I'd care about getting it right. There are moments where I barely dared to speak. And we're going to change those moments. There are, there, there, there are moments where I barely dared to speak. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being scared of making errors. Errors. Errors. Errors. Just say it like that. Errors. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being scared of making errors. Good. The next one is ear. Ear. Ear. A tense E sound, and then the tongue drops and lifts up for the R. Ear, hear, near, fear, clear, year. E, E, E, er, er, er. E, 90% of the sound, er, 10%. Ear, ear, ear. It's been nearly a year since we moved here. Daily phrases. It's been nearly a year Since we moved here. I can hear you, but it's not entirely clear. I can hear you, but it's not entirely clear. Clear. It feels weird, but it gets easier year after year. It feels Weird. Weird. But it gets easier year after year. Let's do this phrase slowly. So to say year, we want to say ear, which is the vowel, and add a Y sound before. Yuh-ee. Yuh-ee. Year. Year. So your tongue goes up for the Y as in yes, then stays there and pushes a little bit for the E. Yee, yee. This is important, especially if you confuse year and ear. Okay? Year. It's not j-j-j. Don't make this sound, jear. Don't drop the yuh. Ear. No. Year. And then you want to connect it to the next word. Year after year. The interesting thing about our vowels in phrases, is that when the R appears at the end and the next word begins with a vowel, like here, year after year, then you can actually make the R become the beginning of the next word. And then it's technically an R vowel because it is before a vowel. It's easier to pronounce it that way. So instead of thinking about it as year after year, you can just think of it as Year after year. Year after year. And I think that rafter is easier than saying a year after. So if this is helpful, great, use it. If not, then move on. Year after year. All right. Professional phrases. I want to make it clear that we're nearly there. I want to make it clear that we're nearly there. Now, we are is we're, but if you say it quickly, it would reduce to we're. We're nearly there. And then want to, you can reduce it to wanna. I wanna make it clear that we're nearly there. After years of work, the product is finally here. After years of work, the product Is finally here. And sentences from the heart. The fear was real, but so is everything I built from here. The fear was real, but so was everything I built from here. I used to disappear in conversations. Now I show up. I used to disappear in conversations. Now I show up. What I feared most was that no one would really hear me. What I feared most was that no one would really hear me. Good. The next one is going to be the OR as in "for." I really like this vowel sound. I don't know, I get emotionally attached to vowels, this is one of them. Or maybe because I had to work really hard to get that sound right. To make the sound, you wanna drop your jaw, round your lips a little bit. And it's like, I always imagine like a tube pronouncing it. Or. Or. It has to be open, it has to be available, but also reserved a little bit, right? It has that dark quality of a back vowel sound. Or. Do not lift the tongue too quickly here. Er. That's how it's going to sound. Fur instead of for. Mer instead of more. Before. Important. According. Floor. Let's look at a few example sentences from daily life. Before I forget, can you store this for me? Store. Store this. Store it. Store it in the store. Can you store this for me before, before I forget? Forget, here, it's not the or sound, it's a schwa. We don't pronounce the R. We'll talk more about it at the end. Before I forget, can you store this for me? Of course, I should have thought about it before. Of course, I should have thought about it. Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda. I should have thought about it before. The store was out of stock, so I ordered more online. We have a lot of O's in this sentence, and I want to look at all of them. Store, that's the O sound that we just talked about. Or, or, or. The store was out of stock. Stock is the open O as in father. We have another O in the out. This is a completely different sound. Out, out. The store was out of stock, out of, out of stock, so, long O as in go, I ordered, or, or, this is the sound that we're practicing, ordered more online, open AH sound. The store was out of stock, so I ordered more online. Professional phrases. According to our records, this was reported before. According, according, according, according to our records. The O here is reduced. This was reported before. Report, report, report. Before we move forward, forward, Forward. I want to explore this a little more. I want to explore this a little more. The core of our argument. Notice how we pronounce the our here, our, our, just like the sound R. The core of our argument is more important than the supporting points. The core of our argument is more important than the supporting points. Sentences from the heart. For so long, I ignored what I was actually working toward. Toward, we don't pronounce the W here. Toward, ignored. For so long, I ignored what I was actually working toward. I'm not performing anymore. This is who I am in English now. I'm not performing anymore. For more. I'm not performing anymore. This is who I am in English now. The door that opened when I stopped being afraid. was worth everything. The door that opened when I stopped being afraid was worth everything. And the word worth has the [r] as in stir, which is the next sound we're going to talk about. This R vowel actually is not really a vowel. The R eats up the vowel and we just hear a strong [r] sound. [r] as in stir. First. Have you noticed we're going from the F to the R? Learn, girl, work, word, world. All these challenging words that people struggle with. This is the sound. The secret is to ignore the vowel before— ignore, not really ignore, but it's kind of like in American English, the R eats up the vowel. In British English, it would be more of a neutral vowel sound. First, learn, the tongue is really low, relaxed. The jaw drops a little bit. Girl, in American English, you lift the tongue up, grr, round your lips a bit more. Phrases from daily life. I heard you the first time. Ooh, I heard you the first time. With a little bit of attitude here. I heard you the first time. Heard first. Good. I learned that the hard way. Learned, learned, learned. I learned that the hard way. Good. Professional phrases. I'd like to circle back to that concern. I'd like to circle back to that concern. Circle back. People seem to like it in conference rooms. 'Circle back.' I'd like to circle back to that idea. I do not like that phrase, but you can have it and like it and use it for as much as you need. I do use it, by the way. I just don't love it. That's what it is. Like, I have different types of relationships with sounds, with vowels, with words, with, with phrases, and, uh, it is what it is. I'd like to circle back to that concern. Could you confirm the terms of the agreement? Could you confirm? Could you confirm? Hey, could you confirm the terms of the agreement? I'm concerned this could hurt our timeline. Concerned, hurt, concerned, hurt. I'm concerned this could hurt our timeline. Hadar Shemeshesh. Hurt our, hurt our. Hadar? Hadar timeline. Good! And now let's talk about sentences from the heart. I worked so hard to get to where I am. I want you to say it out loud. I worked so hard to get to where I am. I used to rehearse every word before I said it out loud. I used to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse every word, word, word. I used to rehearse every word before, or, I said it out loud. For the first time, I felt heard. For the first time, I felt heard. All right, my friends, this was a good practice. I hope you practiced along with me all the R vowel sounds and the different phrases daily, professional, from the heart. There is another sound that I often teach my students, which is the or as in poor, but it's not that common in words. And in American English, it is usually merged with the or sound. This is why I didn't want to burden you with just another sound. But if you're my student and you're saying to yourself, hey Hadar, what about the or as in poor? Not today. I don't think it's that critical to know. And I think that if you know the ones that I've already talked about today, you are going to do remarkably well. What R vowel do we have in the word remarkably? Very good. Remar, remar, mar, car, heart. The one we practiced at the beginning. All right, my friends. Beautiful work. You did great. If you wanna learn more with me, check out my free pronunciation masterclass. Go to hadarshemesh.com/masterclass or click the link below and join me for a full hour of everything that I know about pronunciation and helping you sound clear, confident, and expressive in English. It's going to be a lot of fun. I hope to see you there. Thank you so much for joining me. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the week, and I'll see you next week in the next video.