Use the R sound in English Consistently | Best Strategies

The R sound is NOT an easy sound to pronounce. Even if you’ve been practicing it for a while, you may feel frustrated that you STILL can’t use it as consistently as you would like.

So today, instead of telling you how to pronounce the sound, I’m giving you the best strategies to practice the R sound and make it STICK!

Watch my other videos about how to pronounce the R:

Let’s connect👇🏽
_______________________________________

Practice with me for FREE!
_______________________________________

Free American Pronunciation Guides for:
_______________________________________

[mehtabfarukhi]

I've been struggling with the American R for close to 7 years now for all the reasons you shared. Im going to try these techniques, thank you so much for sharing them!

[sobrikey]

Thanks a lot Hadar from France, very informative, a nice tutorial

[PreetiLucas]

The video I just needed for my son, who is currently learning 2 new languages at school and has subconsciously switched to the new R and not being able to make the switch back.

[jatinderbadesha]

Thank you Hadar from India for being so nice English tutor.

[คุณลีลาวดี]

That’s really a big problem but you fixed it. Big thank you for you.

[orhoushmand]

Now it's time to tell how I acquired the R sound in English as a native Hebrew speaker. Formerly, I was sure that the letter R in English is equivalent to the letter ר' (Resh) in Hebrew, that I pronounce as a uvular trill, so I had pronounced the R sound in English as a uvular trill like in Hebrew.

When I hit puberty however, I gradually stopped believing that the letter R in English is equivalent to the leter Resh in Hebrew, and I started studying this sound actively. I discovered first that this is a voiced approximant, something that means that this sound has traits in common with vowels, when it's pronounced, the air is not really obstructed, it flows almost as freely as in vowels. However, my biggest challenge was to find its place of articulation.

As a matter of fact, this is a retroflex approximant, at least I found out that this is the sound that sounds the most similar to the R sound in English that I can produce. That means that when I pronounce this sound, I curl the front of my tongue up and back, I bring it pretty close to my hard palate, but I make sure that it doesn't touch the hard palate or make friction.

When I tried to pronounce the R sound in English more like it's used to sound in English, my parents told me that I should stop trying to make this sound because it doesn't sound like an R sound clearly enough, and I should keep on pronouncing it as a uvular trill, but I didn't do what they told me to do, I insisted to keep on practicing the R sound in English till it sounds like the proper R sound in English, I didn't give up on myself, and in my mind there was not way back to my old R sound in English.

[Jackelyne-vil]

Hello! Thank you very much Hadar for your lessons 🫶🏼🫶🏼 Can you make a video for the J’s and Y’s for example : Jello and Yellow. I have a hard time with the pronunciation with those words 😢

[TheDudeway]

God, I’m trying to level up my English skills by listening to rap music and reading rap lyrics for quite a while now. Kind of hard tho.
Especially with all the metaphorical phrases, similes etc.
I think havin‘ dialogue with native speakers on a regular basis is the only real way to dig deep into the language and pick up all the slang/accent thing.
But maybe I‘m wrong…

[Atit-]

Ma'am I hope your future Spanish classes 😗

[olikle]

Dear Hadar, thank you as always excellent.

What kind of person do you have on the shelf in the upper right corner?

[kseniyasmirnova]

Thank you so much for the video! I've got a question that's been occupying my mind for quite a while concerning the pronunciation of "at home." According to the rules, we shouldn’t flap the T here, but it sounds so natural when we do. So, is it possible to tap the T, or would it sound incorrect?

[orhoushmand]

I discovered that the alveolar trill is impossible for me because my tongue cannot vibrate.

[armyjoypadua]

I have a problem to pronounce the order... as in and forward...

[aliteo]

Hey ! Big problem to pronounce « Your Own. Your year. Are you. »

[Contagious]

8:21 yes, and end up in a mental institution

[learnmovie-kt]

Could you please consider turning off the music in the videos? It would be great to focus on the content without the background music