The /r/ Sound

The /r/ sound is called the “alveolar approximant,” which means that you put your tongue near the roof of your mouth and voice out.

The /r/ sound is made through the mouth and is Voiced, which means you use your vocal chords. It is defined by the position of your tongue. It is an approximant, which is a sound made by creating a narrow space in your mouth through which air flows. In this case, it’s the space between your tongue and the top of your mouth.

To produce the /r/ sound, curl your tongue near the roof of your mouth and voice out through your mouth. You’re aiming for the tip of your tongue to be right behind the little ridge behind your teeth but it does not touch any part of the mouth.

This video is part of our series on phonetics and pronunciation for learners of English as a foreign language.

Phonetics is the science of pronunciation. It can be helpful for people learning English because one of the most difficult things about the language is the spelling and pronunciation. English is not very phonetic and as a result the same letters are often pronounced in many different ways in different words.
The IPA helps by providing a way to write words as they are pronounced. The normal alphabet only has 26 characters but there are 44 different sounds that are used to pronounce words. As well as that, most word in English originate from other languages like Greek, Latin and French to name just a few and in many cases the the language of origin influences how the word is pronounced.
The IPA provides a symbol (phoneme) for each sound so the correct pronunciation can be written or printed in dictionaries.

This video along with the others in our pronunciation series helps language learners to hear the correct pronunciation and also to know how to produce the sound of each phoneme.

[daviescreed]

Actually the correct symbol is /ɹ/ that indicates an alveolar approximant. To be more precise, the "r" sound in english is a postalveolar (even, in some cases, retroflex) approximant /ɹ̠/, which means the tip of your tongue is way back from alveolar ridge. Furthermore, often it is labialized /ɹ̠ʷ/, which means you round your lips while pronouncing this sound.

[mindyjung]

Love your video! I recently started to study Phonology and it helps me a lot!

[Lendosina]

Thank you very much! I really like the way you explain sounds!

[zuna]

I appreciated your approach to telling people how to make all those English sounds, but I find it very difficult to understand the /r/ sound that you made in the video.Iit appeared that you made 2 versions of the /r/ sound. At 0:20, 0:59, 1:08, and 1:10, you made version one /r/ sound; but at 0:19, 0:30 and 1:23, version two. Sounds like the difference between /æ/ sound and /a:/ sound, similar but not the same. Would you please tell us which one is correct.

[cod]

The symbol you used was actually the symbol for the alveolar trill /r/. The actual symbol for the alveolar approximant is /ɹ/.

[jamesdougherty]

Because of the placement of the tongue, Mr. Munroe is correct when he refers to the "r" sound as the alveolar approximant. When I studied phonetics, this "r" position is what I was taught. If you're from the states, you're probably correct because the American "r" is harsh in non-standard American English. Mr. Munroe is excellent.

[EliteWheatProdctionZ]

this actually isnt an alveolar approximant, the english "r" is actually articulated further back from the alveolar ridge, it is technically classififed as a postalveolar approximant.

[yatyayat]

Some English dialects do have alveolar trill or tap for their "r" sound. :)

[JUST-tkop]

I think all of the English teacher have to watch your videos and teach English in this way.

[CiprianGramatik]

Thank you very much for the post. May I ask you what happens with the "r" in the following words (in non-rhotic accents like RP): beware /bɪˈwɛə/, care /kɛə/, dare /dɛə/, there /ðɛə/, share /ʃɛə/, compare /kəmˈpɛə/, careful /ˈkɛəfʊl/, sphere /sfɪə/, figure /ˈfɪɡə/, and so on? In all of these cases the “r” is neither at the end of the word nor before consonant (rules that many BrE teachers teach for silent "r") – still, it is silent. Are there any rules that can be applied in these cases? What about: very, necessary, arbitrary, and so on - here the "r" is pronounced, but, even though in the middle of the word, there's no consonant before it (other rule BrE teachers teach for non-silent "r")? What's the rule here? What about the words: order, separate and the like? In "order", for example, the "r" is before a consonant - still, it is silent. On the other hand, in "separate" the "r" is in middle position, but there's no consonant before it - still, it is pronounced and therefore non-silent. What I am trying to learn is whether (or not) there are 2 separate rules for the “r”: one telling me when the “r” must be pronounced and one telling me when the “r” is silent. Am I missing something here? Thank you!
As I have spoken with other BrE experts, I would also like to ask you if the following conclusions are accurate enough and could be considered a rule for the pronunciation of the "r" sound (in British RP and non-rhotic accents of English):
1. "r" is silent in the following words: car, star, sister, mother, word, person, bird (/kɑː/, /stɑː/, /ˈsɪstə/, /ˈmʌðə/, /wɜːd/, /ˈpɜːsn/, /bɜːd/) because it is not followed by a vowel sound.
2. "r" is pronounced in the following words: read, write, red, Rome, grass, green, very, separate (/riːd/, /raɪt/, /rɛd/, /rəʊm/, /grɑːs/, /griːn/, /ˈvɛri/, /'sepərət/) and also in berry, carry, arrange (ˈ/bɛri/, /ˈkæri/, /əˈreɪnʤ/) because it is followed by a vowel sound.
Or, to sum up: /r/ (the phoneme, i.e. the sound as in red) occurs only before a vowel phoneme (in British RP and non-rhotic accents of English). In every other case, it is silent. Thank you!

[alicemilne]

At 2:15, you say "In British English words don't normally end with the "r" sound." That is misleading. There are rhotic accents even in England where post-vocalic "r"s are definitely pronounced.

[asimalbahy]

why you don't say if it's voiced or not !

[andrealiu]

r/sounding is a really good place for these videos also