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The Pronunciation Lounge

Medium level

British and American /r/

Episode 250303 / 03 Mar 2025

Free worksheet and transcript

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Watch Episode 3
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The pronunciation of /r/ in British and American English

If you have a rhotic accent, you pronounce the /r/ sound whenever the letter 'r' appears in a word, like in 'learn', 'better' and 'perfect'. North American accents are usually rhotic, and other examples include Scottish, Irish and some Caribbean accents.

In rhotic accents, you can hear the 'r' in the words that have a ✔️:

  • learn ✔️
  • better ✔️
  • perfect ✔️
  • read ✔️
  • carrot ✔️

If you have a non-rhotic accent, like Beth and Georgie, you don't pronounce the /r/ at the end of words like 'better' or between a vowel and a consonant, like in 'learn', but you do pronounce the letter 'r', or the /r/ sound, at the start of a word, like 'read' or in the middle of a word between two vowels, like 'carrot'.

In non-rhotic accents, you can only hear the 'r' in the words that have a ✔️:

  • learn ❌
  • better ❌
  • perfect ❌
  • read ✔️
  • carrot ✔️

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To do

Practise by using the worksheet on this page. The clip we heard came from an episode of 6 Minute English – listen to the whole programme.

Next

What's the difference between 'seat' and 'sit'? Watch Episode 3 here and learn about /i:/ and /ɪ/.

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