Unrolling the /r/

Nel inglese britannico standard, ci sono casi in cui la /r/ praticamente non viene pronunciata, o viene pronunciata molto dolcemente. Ti insegno a perfezionare la tua pronuncia di questa lettera in inglese.

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Sound /r/

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In standard British English, there are cases where the /r/ is barely pronounced, or is pronounced very softly. To master this subtlety, follow this explanation along with the accompanying audio.

HOW TO PRONOUNCE 'R'

Section one: Spotting the problem

Listen: ring, write, carry, free, rabbit, instead of ring, free or rabbit.

The /r/ is not usually rolled.

There are cases in standard British English where the /r/ is practically omitted: for example, in Peter, power, flower, star, perfect, perfume. Students often say flower, star, or perfect.

When the /r/ is pronounced together with /t/, many native speakers say the two consonants almost like /tʃr/: true, actress, tree, triangle, interesting, but never tree, triangle or interesting.

Listen to the sound alone: /r/. Does it sound like a dog’s bark? Or maybe just a poor imitation? Never mind. The point is, softening your /r/ sounds is another step towards eliminating your foreign accent. 

Section two: Correcting the problem

The dog’s bark idea is a good one to keep in mind when practising this sound with words. So, first experiment with the /r/ only. Your neighbours may think you’ve got a dog in your house, but that’s a reasonable sacrifice to make for getting your /r/ sound right.

Section three: Practice

Now listen to me saying some words first, then repeat them after the beep. Make sure you don't roll the /r/. If you are still doing so, practise the non-rolling /r/ sound on its own, and then continue with the words.

ring

right

cross

shower

perhaps

travel

relax

write

grow

younger

shepherd

translate

Now let’s continue with some common collocations with /r/ in them.

crispy cereals

private property

French fries

raw materials

greengrocer

Prime Minister

Section four: Memorize

As always, we will end our lesson by learning some sentences by heart. This way they are there for you any time you want to remember the sound.

1) Ruth, are you ready? We’re in a hurry!

    I’m drying my hair, I didn’t hear you, sorry!

2) Morning! What’s for breakfast? I’m really hungry.

3) Real rock and roll is louder!

And finally, a nonsense tongue-twister:

Rare furry red herrings spring really rapidly.

Try to use authentic texts and a monolingual English dictionary to find more real-life word combinations to practise with. Keep praticing!

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Feci il mio primo esperimento con punture di insetti all’età di sette anni: presi un’ape e la appoggiai sul braccio della maestra. Secondo la mia ipotesi l’ape l’avrebbe punta. E infatti avevo ragione.

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