The American English r is a very difficult sound for many non-native speakers to articulate correctly!
The American English r sounds like /ɚ/. The sound is made by bunching the middle of the tongue high in the back of the mouth and rounding the lips. The tip of the tongue curls up a bit, but it never touches the roof of the mouth.
When a vowel is followed by an r, the vowel sound changes. These are called r-controlled vowels, or r-colored vowels. Here are some of the phonemes you will hear.
The letters ar can sound like /ɑɚ/ as in: car, guitar & star. The letters ear can sound like /iɚ/ as in: near, fear & beard. The letters or usually sound like /ɔɚ/ as in: or, more & course. The letters ir, er and ur, sound like /ɚ/ as in: bird, were, & fur. Since the sounds of r-colored vowels are so complicated, many pronunciation books and courses simplify these. One great resource is the American English Pronunciation exercises from the Kelly brothers at Many Things. The best book that I know of for learning the r-colored vowel sounds is Ann Cook’s American Accent Training. You can see the book by clicking on the link below. American Accent Training (Book and Audio CD, 2nd Edition)
Tags: Accent Reduction for Chinese Speakers, Accent Reduction for Indians, american english consonants, American English Pronunciation, Korean Speakers, learn american accent
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