Many of the Chinese speakers who I work with in my program have problems pronouncing the American English /r/ sound.

This frequently happens when the /r/ sound occurs in the middle of a word (as a vowel sound).

If you are a Chinese speaker who is trying to improve your American English pronunciation, this might be happening to you too. ☆

To correct this problem, try  to think of this sound as ERRR as in PURPLE*.

Words that have an ER as in PURPLE sound include:

  • girl
  • world
  • occur
  • courage
  • learn

 

Additionally…..some of my Chinese speaking clients don’t say the /ɚ/ sound at the end of words. They tend to drop the sound.

If you do that, it will really contribute to your accent! ✔

 

While some American English consonants can be silent (such as the silent T sound) we always pronounce the R sound.

 

If you are a Chinese speaker, do your best to articulate this sound when you speak American English! Articulating your /r/ sounds will make your pronunciation MUCH EASIER to understand.

* I use the Color Vowel Chart to teach my clients the 15 American English vowel sounds.

 

To learn MORE TIPS for Chinese speakers, choose a link below.⬇

Tags: , , ,