How to pronounce the letter R

The letter R can be pronounced in a few different ways. It can be confusing and difficult to understand how to pronounce the letter R because different English speakers from different places who speak with different accents might pronounce it differently.

There are three main ways to pronounce R in English:

• rhotic R = this is the R sound that most people associate with English.
• rolled R = this is the R sound that most people associate with having a foreign accent in English, but it is used in some parts of northern English and Scotland.
• silent R = this is the R sound that you don't hear.

Here are some general rules to help you understand how to say R:

• At the beginning of a word R is almost always pronounced.
• In the middle of a word R is almost always pronounced.
• At the end of a word R is only pronounced in some accents.

In this video we review the pronunciation of the words:

road

ride

rug

red

rural

urban

drawer

plural

rarely

temperature

library

choir

regularly