How To Pronounce American R sound? | Live Lesson

Hi, guys. Hi, everyone. Hi, Kilda. I see you. So, yes, the American R. Let me know in the comments if you are experiencing issues. Hi, Nikki. Hi. You're here. You made it. So let me know if you're experiencing issues with the R sound and if you are, tell me in what words or what positions. Because I want to show you that although the R is a tricky sound, some words are easier and some words are more complicated. And you need to know the difference between the two and what to do in order to make the complicated words more. Less complicated. So, yes. Hi. From Brazil and we have from Syria and we have from all over the place. So good to see you, Maryland. Welcome everyone. Okay, so I asked you if you are experiencing any issues with the R sound and if so, if you can point out if it happens when, you know, every time there is an R or maybe when it's at the beginning or when it's at the end, maybe perhaps, you know, it's after. When it's after certain sounds like. Okay, so I just saw a comment here from Douglas when it comes before an L. Like world, probably girl. Right. So this is tricky. Yeah. Because it has the R sound and. Okay, so good. Okay, so to make the R sound you want, first of all, let's talk about the actual R sound. And then we're going to talk about the difference between the strong R and the soft R. Yeah. There are actually two different R sounds. The strong R and appears before a vowel or soft R that appears after a vowel. But let's begin with making the R sound. To make the R sound, you want to bring the tip of the tongue up. Okay. You can really see my tongue here. So the tip of the tongue is going up but not touching anything. Now, as you can see, my tongue is spread out. Right. It's flat. It's spread across my mouth and the sides of the tongue touch the insides of the upper teeth. Yeah, I see more comments about girl and world. Yeah, absolutely. These are tricky words and we're gonna talk about those today. Okay, so remember, you want to bring the tip of the tongue up. There's contact between the teeth and the tongue, and it's a continuous sound. Now, every speaker is substituting or not substituting that maybe you are making the American sound and you just want to fine tune it. That's okay, we'll talk about that. But if you don't know how to make the American R, you first need to know what are the substitutions that you're making. So, for example, for all you Spanish, Russian, Arabic speakers, you're probably substituting the R sound with. With a trilled R, okay? So instead of saying right, you may say right. If you're doing that, you need to remember that there is no contact. And instead of a tap, right, of, you know, trill that where the tongue is kind of like vibrating against the upper palate, the tongue pulls back and it's a continuous sound closer and in sound two, an L or a W, R. And as you can see, my lips round as well. So hold out the sound. If you hear, then you know that you are going back to your old habits. But if you pull the tongue in, R, right? Pull it in, spread it. Feel that the sides are touching the insides of the upper teeth. Round your lips, right? Think of making a Y sound, as in. Yes, right, do it with me. Now, as you're making the Y sound, the tongue is in the right position for the R as well. The difference is that the tongue is down here for the Y. So you want to lift the tongue up. So if you manage to control your tongue, try it by making a Y sound and then lift the tongue up until you hear this really tense R sound. Another substitutions. That substitution that you may be making if you are a Hebrew speaker, a German speaker, a French speaker, is that you're making a velar R, okay? Or instead of the R sound, okay? So in this case, your tongue is down, it's flat, your lips are relaxed, and actually just the back of the tongue is touching the soft palate, maybe the uvula. So here we want to relax the back of the tongue. Imagine like you are pronouncing an L sound, right? Because for the L, you lift the tongue up, but instead of bringing the tongue up to touch the upper palate, just pull it back a bit. So let's start by making an ah sound and bring it up for an L, and then bring it up without touching the upper palate. Imagine like you're saying an L sound. You see it's already changing. And if you round your lips, you get the R sound. One more thing you can try is start with a J sound, as in judge. And as you're pronouncing the, pull the tongue in until you feel that the J sound is fading out. And. And then you hear the strong R sound. So that's the R sound, okay? Now sometimes some speakers may substitute it with an L sound, right? Like a light tap. So again here, remember that there is. You know that it's a continuous sound, okay? And I think rounding the lips and really Feeling the sides of the tongue touching the teeth is helpful here. R. Okay, so that's the actual R. But I'm right now talking about the strong R when it's before vowel. So let's look at a few more words with the strong R. Red rain, rough result. That's when it's at the beginning. It can also be in the middle, like around already. Carry. Okay, so see my. How I round my lips. I don't want you to do something like this. I don't want to see carry, carry, carry. So although I'm making the R sound here, Carry. It doesn't have the nice quality, the intensity, the volume, care. Right. See the difference again between. Right. Right. So my tongue is in the right place and. Right. Totally different. Totally different sound placement, sound quality. Think of it. Think of your mouth as an instrument. Right? And when I'm doing this, then it's a very small instrument, the resonance box. Think of a small guitar versus a larger guitar or a flute. Right? And when I'm extending my lips forward, I'm creating more space for the voice to resonate. And then you get this really nice, strong sound. Okay, so so far we talked about the strong R. Now, I bet that most of you don't experience issues with the strong R. So what we did here is just fine tune your sound, making sure that you round your lips, making sure that you're not substituting it. And if you feel that you know how to make it, but you always go back to your, you know, your neutral sound, then just practice it by reading out loud or speaking slowly and attentively, making sure that you're nailing every single R sound. If you don't have someone to give you feedback, record yourself and listen to it and try to detect if you are using the R sound that may sound like a W sound at the beginning, or you're actually. Or you're going back to your or sound or any other sound that you're making. Okay, so that was the strong R. Now, the secret begins when we're talking about the soft R. Because here's the thing. The soft R is an R vowel. It's an R that appears after a vowel. It is found in words like car. Where Here, for now, we see what happens. What happens if I drop the R? Ca. Where? Right. I dropped the R and it still made sense. Right? You understood what words I'm saying, And maybe it sounded to you like more like a British dialect or a Southern dialect. And yes, because not all languages pronounce the R in the not all dialects, sorry, American of English, pronounce the R after a vowel, which means that the vowel is more important than the r. You can actually drop the r and it's still going to be clear. But if you eat up the vowel and the vowel before the R is not clear, that's the most important thing I want you to take from this lesson. If the vowel is not going to be clear, that's when you become unclear. And because if you reduce the ah in car and you say ker, and if you're saying instead of for fur, it's going to sound like a different word. And if you, instead of saying short, you'll reduce the sound and you'll say something like shirt. Now it's going to sound like shirt. That's a different word because there's also a vowel that is eaten by the R, and that's the R as in stir. Okay, we'll talk about that later. But for now, I'm saying that all those 5R vowels are as in car, say it with me. Air, as in dare, ear, as in here, or as in for and, or as in poor 5R vowels, where the vowel is more important than the R. It should feel to you like you're going down the steps. Like the first step is the vowel and the second step is the R. And the R in this case is very, very short, reduced, small, tiny, less than, you know, 20% of the energy that you're probably investing right now. So, for example, again, I don't want you to go for car, but car. Once you start hearing the rsm, once your tongue starts going up lightly, that's it. The word is over. So make sure you. You stretch out the vowel before the R so the word is actually clear. Car. That's the oz and father. But around my. My lips a little more. Guitar. It's not guitar. It's not guitar. Guitar. Five count Guitar. Guitar. Practice on stretching out the sound. Control your tongue. That's the secret. Don't let your tongue come up because you want to be done with this word because it's an R word. So the secret here is not to engage a lot of muscle work. It's not to round the lips. Okay, not car again, car. And make it very, very soft. The air, as in care, starts with the E sound. So you want to drop your jaw here and make sure that the tongue is down where dare care. Fair compare. Right? This is a tricky one because a lot of non native speakers tend to say compare where? And then it sounds like were we were we were wearing. Right. These are two different sounds. And then we have the or. Or, as in for. Right, the sound. Okay. And the or as in poor. So for all those 5R vowels, make sure that the vowel is more important than the R. Finally, there's another R sound that is the R as in stir, where the R eats up the vowel before, as in first. Right. It's not fairst or fierced. Learn her. Okay, so these are the sounds where the vowel is not important and it's eaten up by the R. Burger, Murder, learner. Okay, all these Rs. And this is the R that appears in words. Okay, so you asked for it. The world and girl. So now what happens when the R appears before an L? When the R appears before an L, you want to make sure that you hold out the R Gr. But it's also about the L because you don't want to necessarily bring your tongue quickly for the L. Girl. Because the dark L is created here somewhere very close to the arm. Girl. Right, it's here. If you bring the tongue up quickly for the L, girl, it's going to kill the R. It's going to affect it, and you're gonna get stuck. So try to make a longer R than you're used to because it's the place of the vowel and the R. Girl. Girl. Girl. Okay, so it's R L. And that's basically the sound of the R. If you're trying to just isolate it and just make it R. L. And that's the L. Like when you're swallowing, you don't even have to lift the tongue up. But you can after you're doing girl World. Right? So here, only at the end, you bring the tongue up for the D and pearl. Okay, so that was my explanation. Now let's look at your questions. What words are difficult for you with the R? So I've seen north. Right? So make sure you round your lips for the L. North, not nerf. Okay, so it's or as in door. So think of the steps. North. And I also saw a question about northern. Northern. Right here we have a voice. Th. Northern. Okay. Hi, everyone. We have a bunch of hellos here and people from all around the world. Okay, so Nicky's asking how to say train. Okay? Ah, the. Okay, sorry. So she says that the nice. The best way to train yourself is to sing with songs. And I absolutely agree with it. You have some freedom when you're singing along, but also listen to the sounds. So if you're working on the R sound, so listen to all the R's in the song and try to imitate the voice quality and the actual pronunciation. So, yes, working with songs or imitation exercises are extremely, extremely helpful. Okay, let me know if you have any other words with R that are difficult for you. So I talked about the R before. An L like world. Okay. The word. Right. Okay, so I don't see any more questions. Okay, so once this live video, live lesson is over, you can keep on asking me questions about words with Rs because I can make more videos about it or address it in my next live lesson. Okay, so Ginny asking about the word read or read. It's written the same. I read a book and I need to read. Okay, so both of them have the strong R. One has a high E. Read. And I read the newspaper. Okay, so what is this? Resolution. And important. Okay, so resolution. You round your lips. That's a strong R. Schwa. Lou. Tense. U as in food. And then resolution. I actually have a video about it. About resolution and about important as well. But I'll explain it. Import. This is the or as in for. So it's very important to make that open or sound and not impertinent. Right. Are you making that mistake saying impertinent instead of important? If so, let me know in the comments. Po. Er. Important. Important. So, okay, so we have here and here. Yeah, they're pronounced the same. I'm here or can you hear me? That's the ear, as in dear. Okay, so we have a great question from clause, I think how to pronounce rare. Here we have a strong R and a soft R and an e in the middle. It's difficult. But the secret here is to start strong, as if you're about to say red. Red. But after you're done with the E, then you lift the tongue up to a very, very soft R. Rare. If you feel that your R at the end is too strong, try to imitate a British accent. Rare. Rare. Right. Sounds British. How's my British accent? Rare. Right. And then go back to making a very subtle R at the end. Let's try rarely. Rarely. I was just reading a script with one of my students the other day, and the word rivalry was there, and I actually had difficulties saying it. My tongue got twisted. Let's do it together. Rivalry. Rival. Rivalry. See, I have this thing with this word. So it's a dark L. Rival. So don't lift the tongue up. Rival. And then round your lips for the R. Re. Rivalry. Rivalry. Okay, the word. Ahmed is asking about the word prefer. Prefer. These are stir sounds and schwa. R. Okay, so the first one is a stir. No, first one is a schwa. And then prefer. Prefer. Primary stress on the second syllable. A lot of R here round your lips. Prefer. Make sure. I forgot to say, one of the most important things is to drop the R. If you feel that everything sounds a little hollow and there's a lot of tension when you're speaking. Maybe you're not bringing the tongue down after you're done with the strong R. So, for example, reality. Or I'll use a better word. Rude. Do you hear that? It's a little hollow. I usually say rude. Rude. But I hear a lot of my students saying rude rules. Right? And that sounds like this because I'm keeping the tongue up when I'm pronouncing the oo sound. Now, for all the vowels, the tip of the tongue should be down. Okay? And if I keep it up just because it was up for the R and I'm like, I'm just gonna leave it there because it feels comfortable, then it's gonna sound hollow. Right? Ru. Ru. Rude. Okay, I have a question about the word controller. Controller. So let's begin with the word control. It's a C sound. Sound. Schwa. Kin. Kin. And then it's a long O as in go, Troll. Now, see what happens to the T after, before and R. It becomes a ch sound. So the TR is actually a ch, as in chicken. Tro, O as in go. And then the dark L. Control, O. But then if you want to say the word controller, you bring the. The tongue up for the L. Controller, controller, thr. Words. Through, see, through, through. Make sure that the tongue is out for the th. And then you pull it in for the R. Sorry, I keep looking to the side. I'm looking at your comments. Thir. Thur. Through three. Throat. Okay, so all of this are words that are pronounced with an R after the th. And you want to make sure that you Round your left throat. Okay, there was one more word. Okay, we have the word respect. Okay. Can go through all the words here. Rotten. Okay. Rotten. Rotten. The word rotten. It's not a flap T. If you've seen my last video about the T's, my last live video, I talked about the T before a schwa. N. Rotten. And that's never a flap T, so it's not going to be rotten. Okay, Rotten or rotten with a light T. Okay, last one for today. They are. And there are. And they're. Okay, so I have a video about they are versus there Are. But let's talk about. They are. They are. That's the R as in car. They are. But you usually reduce it to their. Their. Okay. Oh, so there. So. Sorry, I will. I'm looking. Sorry I messed up the comments here. I have someone. Okay, so they're. Sorry, I can't read comments and speak at the same time. They're. They're happy about it. It's over there. Okay, so it's the same pronunciation. And it's their company. Okay. It's their company. T H E I R. Their company. Their as in there are. Sorry. They are. They're happy about it. And it's over there. T H E R E. Okay, so all pronounced the same. All different words. But they're all. Yeah, they're all pronounced the same. All different words. Okay. There, there, and there. And the word there are is a little different because there are two R's here. You're supposed to say there are, but when you say it quickly there. Right. It feels like it's one long R. There. There. One last thing. No one asked me about it, but the word mirror. Er, Horror. What else? So all these R O, R endings, right? So the O is actually a schwa. So it's basically R. Schwa. R error. But when it's said quickly, it's just one long R. Air. Air. Mirror. And horror. Horror movie. Or horror movie. Okay, you can open your mouth more for the. Ah. Okay, that's it for today. So we talked about the strong R when it appears at the beginning of a word. We said you need to round your lips, pull the tongue up, make sure that the tip of the tongue is not touching anything. As in read, write and result. And then we said when the R appears after a vowel, you have to give more space and time for the vowel. Don't lift the tongue up to interfere with the vowel. Car. Where and not were and car. And for. No, for. The vowel is more important than the R. And sometimes the R does eat up the vowel before. As in stir. First learn. We said that when there is an L right after, as in girl, world her, then you want to prolong the R a little bit. And then make sure that your L is a dark L at. In. In the back of the mouth rather than up. Here. Girl. Girl. And when there are Schwa Rs at the end of a word, then it can sound. It will sound just like one long R, as in air and mirror. Okay, thank you so much, guys. If you haven't subscribed yet, you are welcome to subscribe to my channel and tell your friends about this if they' non native speakers, so they subscribe too. And then you can practice together tomorrow. I have an awesome video about 10 words in education. Words like methodology and thesis and education and student. So it's going to be fun. And I also have a PDF sheet and audio practice with it. So after watching the video, you can actually drill the words. Because change comes from action, not just from thought. So the fact that you understand something and is good, but it's not gonna get you anywhere if you're not practicing. Okay, it's not gonna get you anywhere, just understanding it. You have to practice it, you know, develop muscle memory and change habits. Okay? So for the upcoming week, set for yourself the up the goal of using the R as much as possible. Being aware of the R. Awareness is key, so knowing whether you need to make it a strong R and round your lips or to relax it a bit, pronounce it after a vowel, softly and shortly. Okay, Read out loud imitation exercises and just speak to yourself and to many of your friends if you can. That's it. Have a good day or a good night, wherever you are, and I will see you in tomorrow's video. But it's not going to be live. I will see you next week at the same time for another live video. I haven't decided what it's going to be about yet, so if you have some ideas or questions, let me know in the comments below. Take care and have a lovely, lovely day. Bye.