The American R

The American R can be a challenging sound for non-native speakers, even those who speak other English dialects.   In some accents, the r sound is rolled or trilled.  In others, it sounds more like vowel schwa, or the sound "uh."  Did you know that the "r" sound is different depending on where it falls in the word?  You may have no trouble saying the "r" in red or really, but struggle with the "r" sounds in bird or forever.

Whatever your difficulty, this may be a sound that needs practice at the phoneme and syllable level. Rather than trying to start by saying words with r, practice the sound by itself and in nonsense syllables.  You might find the trouble is not with making this sound, but rather with breaking the habits of your old pronunciation in words.  Use the recordings below to try the sound, syllables, and words in a new way.

r sound, vowel ER

R syllables

R words