How to Pronounce the American R Sound: American R Part 1

hello and welcome to the clear English corner I'm Keenan your personal American English pronunciation coach and in this lesson we're talking about another distinctly American sound the American are now this sound can be a little bit tricky and in order to make things as simple and straightforward as possible I'm going to break the our lessons into three parts and three different videos in this lesson we're going to talk about or at the beginning of words we're also going to talk in depth about what you need to do with your lips and tongue in order to make this sound in Lesson number two we'll talk about her at the end of syllables and the end of words in lesson number three we'll talk about her at the end of syllables and the end of words when it follows a vowel sound so in lesson three we're talking about vocalic or vowel colored are you can get to each of these separate lessons by clicking on the tags that are floating above my head and I will also share links to these lessons in the video description here on the clear English corner we're talking about all things American English pronunciation related so if this is something you're studying and looking to perfect you have found the right channel so be sure to subscribe and tap the bell so that you'll receive notifications any time a new lesson is published all right so let's dive in to her at the beginning of words we're going to talk about three things when we talk about how to make this sound we're going to talk about what you're doing with your tongue what you're doing with your lips and finally the tension that's involved in making this sound let's talk about what you're doing with the tongue you want the sides of your tongue to be touching the inside of your back top teeth now if you're not sure what I mean try doing the vowel sound e e when you make the sound the sides of your tongue are pressed against the inside of your back top molars the back top teeth try it with me II II do you feel how the sides of your tongue are pressing against your upper teeth II II you can actually use the e sound to work into the ER by saying the word ear like this thing on the side of my head your ear that sound can help you get your tongue in the right position okay so the sides of your tongue are pressed against your back top teeth what is the tip of your tongue doing this can be the source of some of the confusion with our because you'll hear some people talk about the tongue tip being up and others will talk about the tongue tip being down the fact is Native American English speakers use both of these positions in order to articulate the R sound and they're both correct when I'm coaching my students I encourage them to go for the position where the tongue tip is up and I do this for two reasons number one it's easier to articulate the sound this way and if we're already having a little trouble with the sound why make it more difficult than it needs to be a second reason is a lot of you are already articulating this sound or approximating this sound with the tongue tip up so it makes sense to start from there okay so the tongue tip is up but here's the key you want to make sure that your tongue tip is not touching anything on the upper mouth it's not touching the back of your teeth it's not touching the alveolar Ridge and it's not touching the roof of your mouth there's space between the tip of your tongue and the top of your mouth as you make the sound I actually like to use a spoon to demonstrate the position of the tongue for making the sound so it's like you're making a small spoon shape with your tongue the sides of the tongue are pressed against the back top teeth the tip of the tongue is curled up but not touching anything just pointing up slightly pointing toward the alveolar Ridge but not touching it the tongue shape is making just a small little bowl like this shape of this spoon another sound that you can use to help you work towards the R sound is the Shh sound when you do the sound your sides of your tongue are pressed against the back top teeth the tip of your tongue is up and pointed towards the alveolar Ridge but it's not touching it or tapping it at all Shh so you can try the word sure sure sure okay so now that we know what our tongue is doing what are the lips doing for this sound the lips for her especially at the beginning of words are rounding out the corners are coming in and the lips are pushing out away from the teeth ah ah okay we've talked about the tongue position and the lip position for this sound let's talk about the tension when we talk about tension what I mean is your jaw your tongue and your lips are tight for this sound this is different than compared to say and mm or all sound for both the mm or in all or else ounds the jaw is relaxed the tongue is up connecting with the alveolar Ridge but it's not tense it's more relaxed and the lips are not rounding at all for those sounds they're relaxed Oh mm mm very different for the sound where our jaw tenses up the tongue is tense and pulled back and the lips are rounded intense or can you see the difference there okay so just a recap the tongue the sides of the tongue are pressed against the back top teeth the tip of the tongue is pointed up towards the alveolar Ridge pointed up but not touching it not connecting with anything at the top of the mouth the lips are rounding out or and this jaw tongue and lips are tense so let's practice this sound in some words as you're practicing this sound I encourage you to stretch the sound out which is helpful for a couple of reasons first if you're trilling the sound okay you're not going to be able to hold that sound out so if you can stretch the sound you know you're getting the American are also by stretching the sound out it gives your ear a chance to hear when you're hitting that American R sound all right so let's practice this sound in some words together here we go Reed Reed I love to read really really really easy it's really easy ready ready are you ready right right got it right you've got it right awesome practice if you're looking for a little more practice with this sound I've got a word list for you 100 common American English words with her at the beginning you can get your list by clicking on the link in the video description that's a wrap for our lesson on her at the beginning of words remember there's two more lessons coming or at the end of syllables and words and also vocalic R so be sure to tune into those lessons so you have the full scoop on this sound in American English as always thanks so much for tuning in I'll see you next time

Channel: Clear English Corner with Keenyn Rhodes

Views: 548,794

Keywords: American R, American R Sound, R Sound, Pronounce the American R Sound, clear english, clear english corner, r sound in american english, how to pronounce /r/, pronounce the r sound, american english, american english accent, american english pronunciation, pronunciation american english, american english learning, american accent, american accent training, american pronunciation, how to speak american accent, american, accent, english, pronunciation, esl, toefl, training, lessons

Id: 3XRTN5gW4oU

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018