Why you can’t pronounce the R in English and how to REALLY practice it

What to do when you work on your R but it still doesn't stick? You know what to do when you practice it, or you mostly know what to do, but when you go back to spontaneous speaking, you always go back to your native R. Or you're just not consistent and every now and then another R comes in. So let's talk about why that happens and how you can improve.

Because the R in English, British or American, is very different than other R's in other languages. In fact, each R, when you think about it, whether it's the trilled R, or the velar R, or the American R, they're all very, very different and produced in different places in the mouth. Yet, all of them are within the same category of the R sound.

Also, the R in almost all languages is one of the last sounds that kids acquire when they learn a language. So there is a reason for why the R specifically is more challenging than other sounds, and specifically the R in English is not very common. So not a lot of languages have the R sound. Most languages don't.

Now, I've already made a lot of videos on how to pronounce the R. I'm going to link them in the description below. I have a podcast episode and practice drills. And by the way, I have a practice drill prepared for you, a PDF with words, phrases, and sentences, and an audio practice that you can download for free, so you can put what I teach into practice right away. So it's not just passive learning, it's active learning. Because you know that active learning works.

By the way, if you're new to my channel, my name is Hadar. I'm a non native speaker of English. And I'm here to help you speak English with clarity, with confidence, and with freedom.

You can also check out my website at hadarshemesh. com to access a lot of free lessons and resources, again, for free. Just waiting for you to grab it, and practice and improve at no cost. All the links are in the description.

So, I'm not going to teach you how to pronounce the R, I'm just going to remind you that when you pronounce the R in English, first of all, you have to remember that there are two different R's: strong R and soft R, both of them are pronounced the same. A strong R appears at the beginning of a word or before a vowel, like 'red' or 'around'. And the soft R appears after a vowel, where the vowel is more important than the R: care, hear, part, first.

Now, in American English, the R after the vowel is pronounced exactly the same, Maybe it's a little softer. In British English, and other dialects, the R drops in these situations. So you, if you're working on your British accent, then you don't need to pronounce the R's after a vowel or before a consonant or at the end of words. But either way, we are now going to work on just the essence of the R, strong or soft, in American dialects.

And, to pronounce it, you need to remember that the tip of the tongue shouldn't touch anything. Rrrrr. The sides of the tongue touch the sides of the teeth, the lips round a bit, especially if it's before a vowel. rrrrrred. You don't want to have too much tension, rrrr, right? You just want to be nice and chill about it, but lips are rounded.

And the tongue does most of the work. The tongue kind of like pulls back, contracts. The sides of the tongue touch the sides of the teeth, and the tip of the tongue doesn't touch anything. [ur]. There's tension inside, but not too much. And it has to click to the right place. Red, right, result.

So why is it so hard to use the R consistently when speaking, and not just when practicing? So first of all, the R, the American R or the R in English, is very different than probably a lot of sounds in your first language, and definitely different than the R in your first language. And if that's the case, it's going to be more effortful. You're going to have to invest more effort into pronouncing this R consistently. And the body and mouth – they like to be efficient. So you're probably going to invest less energy and effort, and as a result, would kind of like fall back into pronouncing the R the way you were used to, the way it is in your first language.

Second, learning a sound is really just building a new habit. And to build a new habit, you have to do something again and again and again and again and again until it's automatic, until you don't have to give an order to the mouth to go into a certain place, right? It has to be automatic. And if you tend to go back to your natural R, it means that you haven't built a habit. That's it. It's not because you're not capable. It's not because it's too hard. It's just because you haven't built the habit. and it's just a matter of time, focus, repetition, and of course, practice. Okay? So, remember that if that is the case, then you really just have to go back to repeating the sound again and again and again. I'm going to give you some strategies to practice in a little bit.

The third reason could be because you don't feel natural or comfortable with it. So subconsciously you might feel fake or not like yourself or different, or it's just not going to feel right, which is what happens when you start integrating new sounds. But that's part of the work.

Now, the more you do it, the more natural it becomes, the more comfortable you start feeling. But you need to work hard, or a lot, to get to that place where it already feels natural. Until then, it's going to feel unnatural, so you've got to get comfortable with it, and you've got to recognize that you should feel uncomfortable to know that you're doing a good job.

Now, how to practice so that you can start using your R more consistently? This is my favorite part, that's what I do. So let me share with you some tips on how you can use the R more consistently in speaking. First, you have to drill sounds to make it a habit. What does that mean? Just lists of words, phrases with Rs, maybe short sentences. You can use ChatGPT to help you. And like I said, I have prepared for you a PDF with a lot of examples and audio practice, so you can just play it and listen to it and repeat with me. Okay? So that is the best way to practice.

Second, you can read out loud and underline all the R's. Again, you can use ChatGPT for that, or you can use a script and just do it yourself, or use the Find option on Google Docs and just bold or underline all the different Rs. And when you read out loud, be really intentional about using those Rs.

The next thing is to speak out loud and record yourself and speak spontaneously. So, ask yourself a random question and answer it and make sure that you use the R intentionally and consistently when you speak. Now, because you might be thinking about what to say, you may not pay attention. And as a result, you might go back to your other R. This is why recording yourself and listening back to it is a really great way to notice these things.

The last thing that you can do is really get used to making the sound. So you can literally just detach it from words, phrases, and sentences, and just walk around whenever you can, and just do this: ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra. ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh. ree, ree, ree, ree. reh, reh, reh, reh. Start adding vowels after the R.

ruw, ruw, ruw, ruw. row, row, row, row., ree - reh, ree - reh., row - ruw, row - ruw. Until it starts hurting. Until you start getting tired because you're exercising your muscles. You just want to get comfortable and fine tune that R sound, and you can do it just through repetition. And it's kind of like you're signaling to your brain that this is an okay sound. This is a sound that you start incorporating into your system.

And when you think of how kids learn a language, there is the babbling phase when they just make these weird sounds all the time. Ba ba ba ba ba ga ga ga ga ga gi gi gi gi gi, right? And this is how they train the muscles to find the right sounds and how they build their habits. So, if kids do that, why shouldn't we do it when we incorporate a new sound?

So, of course, we do that when we read out loud. but if you do it out of context, it's still going to be very beneficial and you don't need anything for it, right? So, go... when you go to pick up your kids on your way there, you just go ra ra ra ra ra re re re re.

When you walk to the train to get to work, you're just like: ra ra ra ra ra re re re re. You can hide your mouth so no one sees it. So that you get comfortable with the sound and you'll see that the quality actually starts improving. Because the mouth tends to optimize sounds the more you make them, especially if you're in a mindset of exploration. So, this is actually one of my favorite practices. And I have to tell you, it's a really, really effective practice. My students always say that it has helped them significantly.

I actually have another video called The R Bootcamp. So it would be a really good supplement for this video, after we talked about the theory, where it's just drills and exercises to practice the R so you can incorporate it into your speaking. Incorporate it. Ruh, ruh, ruh. All right? So you should definitely watch it. I'm going to link to the video in the description. Definitely check it out, definitely download the R practice sheet.

And if you'd like more, then don't be a stranger. Come on over to my website at hadarshemesh.com. Sign up for my newsletter to get weekly updates and lessons to your inbox. And also, there are a lot of free resources there for you to use and practice.

All right, so have a great rest of the day, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.