American English sound
The American R: how to pronounce /r/ like a native speaker
The American R is made without touching anything: the tongue pulls back and up, the lips round slightly, and the sound flows continuously. It is never trilled, tapped or made in the throat.
American English is rhotic: the R is pronounced everywhere it's spelled, including after vowels, as in car, hard and better. Strict IPA writes this sound /ɹ/; our chart uses /r/, like most American dictionaries.
/r/
the American R
How to make the sound
- 1Curl the tip of your tongue back and up toward the roof of your mouth without touching it. (Bunching the middle of the tongue up instead works too; both give the same sound.)
- 2Press the sides of your tongue lightly against your upper back teeth.
- 3Round your lips a little, as if starting to say “oo”.
- 4Keep the sound going with your voice on: no tap, no vibration, no friction in the throat.
- Tongue
- tip-palatal
- Lips
- rounded
- Voice
- voiced
Hear it in words
Tap a word to hear it.
At the start
In the middle
At the end
How it's spelled
- r: red, very, car
- rr: sorry, carry, mirror
- wr: write, wrong
- rh: rhythm
Common mistakes
A trilled or tapped R
Rolling the R, or tapping the tongue on the gum ridge, comes from languages like Spanish, Italian and Russian. The American tongue never touches the roof of the mouth.
An R from the throat
The French and German R is made at the back of the mouth. Move it forward: the tongue tip and lips do the work.
Dropping the R after vowels
Saying car as “cah” is British, not American. Keep the R in car, hard, mother and here.
Mixing up R and L
If right and light sound the same, compare them: for L the tongue tip touches the gum ridge, for R it touches nothing.
Who finds /r/ hard
Speakers of these languages often replace it with a sound from their own language. Linked languages have their own accent traps page.
Often say /ʁ/ instead
Minimal pairs
Each pair differs by one sound. If both words sound the same when you say them, practice this pair.
Try it
“Rory's car is parked right around the corner.”
Record a sentence and get a score for every sound, /r/ included. Free, no account.
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Do Americans pronounce the R in “car”?
Yes. General American is rhotic: R is pronounced after vowels, in car, hard, mother and here. Many British accents drop it in those positions.
Why is the American R written /ɹ/ in some dictionaries?
In the IPA, /r/ is officially a trilled R. Phoneticians use /ɹ/ for the English approximant; most learner dictionaries keep /r/ because English has only one R sound.