The R sound in British and American English
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- Опубликовано: 1 фев 2025
- Learn how we pronounce different R sounds in British and American English. Jay has a rhotic accent and Vicki has a non-rhotic accent. You'll hear how that affects our pronunciation of R before consonants and at the end of words. We'll help you recognize the pronunciation differences and also share some tips for making perfect R sounds in both British and American English.
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Jay: Erotic R sounds?
LOL You guys are hilarious. Thank you for addressing this topic in such an engaging way. Your explanation is very clear and the illustrations are very helpful. I'll share this one on FB. :) Thanks again!
Oh so glad you liked it Jennifer! We're looking forward to making some British and American videos with you. But what are you doing working on vacation? Get back to the beach!
Simple English Videos
Yay, cooperative videos with Jennifer! That's great. 😀
We have some in the works Ra'ed. :-)
Simple English Videos
Thanks a lot, guys. You are awesome. 😉
i like both of u and jennifer ESL .ure the best teachers.thanks a lot and plz make more videos
I'm french, so i learnt british english at school. This is why it's easier for me to understand Vickie than Jay. In my opinion, Vickie's pronunciation is perfect. With the years, I have travelled a lot (australia, South Africa) and my brain recorded new pronunciations close to Jay. My english speaking is now a Mix of different pronunciations. Lol
Thanks Aero1969. Yes, no doubt you'll have heard more British accents when you were at school in France, but it's great that you've been able to travel and hear lots of other ones.
I'm from Serbia and we also learn british english at school, but we speak with rhotic accent, even english teachers do. It's probably because it's in the middle between serbian strong r and british non-r or because there is more american influences than british, idk. I can understand both Vickie and Jay very well, but it's hard to me to speak british so I prefer american
I could be hearing you hours and hours... You speak clearly and you make of teaching English and learning it the nicest task. Congratulations!
Thank you so much for the kind words Feminae sapienti. Much appreciated.
Who else has been binging these videos? They're so interesting and even though I am a native English speaker, I've found that they help me to tremendously improve my English! Thank you! ☺️
I prefer British accent. But frankly, American English is more understandable. Thanks for the video.
Hello Dildar. Thanks so much for writing. Glad you liked it.
Exactly the same happens with me, is a lot more understandable the American but British unless for me is more interesting.
I believed that the british accent was more understandable , though i live near to USA i understand the British more
I feel that the Americans pronunce more speed and They have many abbreviations when speak
Well i'm barely learning english haha
Greetings from México
@@sawsalas For me it's not, I'm from Colombia and British accent sometimes for me sounds like they aren't pronouncing anything, I understand American accent 100 times more than British and I ain't joking, But I must admit that I like a bit more British accent.
@@juanmanuelmoramontes3883
Y si eres de Colombia.
¿Por qué no me contestate en español?
Jaja pequeña broma.
Pues en mi caso noto que varios Estadunidenses acortan mucho sus palabras y hablan rápido que no terminan de pronunciar todo (bueno así lo siento yo )
Aunque si hay unos que me gusta mucho como hablan ya que pronuncian muy "tranquilo"
Y el británico como que es más sofisticado jaja y casi no hacen eso.
Supongo que es lo mismo que aquí en mi país, enserio hay partes de aqui en México que no entiendo bien cuando hablan jaja
Pero bueno debo entrenar más mi oído para el inglés y para el español jajaja
This two deserve their own tv channel teaching pronunciation and making sketches . They're funny and understandable but the best is that sometimes I see them talking about things in pronunciation that I dont find in another place.
Great videos
Hi Karen. Thank you for the lovely compliments. We have several hundred videos now on our channel so I think we've done what you've suggested :-) Thanks so much for writing to us and thanks for watching our videos.
I don't know why I watch these even though I'm English. Your videos are really entertaining.
NotAfrongGaming, we are so pleased you are enjoying our videos. We have many native English speakers who watch our videos and are subscribed to our channel. Thank you so much for participating in our community and thanks for watching.
Great timing on this video; it just popped up in my recommendations! I live in Boston and was trying to explain this to someone. Although the joke is that no one pronounces their Rs here, to me it just has a different but distinct sound.
Ah yes, you guys 'pahk the cahr in hahvahd yahd. :-) (Jay here). I grew up in Brooklyn, and we didn't pronounce our 'R's either, but the accent was much different from Boston. Thanks for watching.
I am happy that i find your channel. You are so positive and kind people :)
Thanks a lot Kamila.
This RUclips channel. Made my english skill better than before. And it's easy and fun to learn than the school. Thanks you guys for made this brilliant channel.
Wow! Thanks so much Hype Guy. It's great to have you with us.
@@SimpleEnglishVideos It's great to watch you guys too. I really enjoy the video and the lessons. Thanks for upload a good and useful video like this.
Oh my god they are both precious and informative, it's like an educational version of sundays with your grandparents
So glad you liked it, Caitlan. Thanks for writing. :-)
I was born in the US and I still watched this video. It was so interesting! Didn't realize our R's can be difficult for some other countries. I like the english accent much better.
Hello Summerafternoon. This is Jay writing back to you. It is sometimes a source of annoyance for us when I have to ask Vicki to repeat a word with an 'r' in it that she didn't pronounce. We're so glad you found the video interesting. Thanks for letting us know and thanks for watching.
I really loved this video (as always!) You two are incredible guys! Thanks a lot! Xoxoxo
So glad you liked it Lucy! Thanks for telling us.
Cutest couple ever! I love to see couples that find love "across the pond"!
Thanks so much T ATL! :-)
I'm taking English Diction for Singers and this really helped me understand the difference between the two different 'r's. Thank you!
Oh we're so glad it was helpful! We have a good friend who is an opera singer. Do you know Rachel's English?. You might enjoy Rachel's channel too. ruclips.net/video/rK_tGAmAg2Q/видео.html
Never even realised this before! We drop that R sound!
Thank you for your interesting teaching on robotic and non-robotic. I love you both.
*rhotic and non rhotic
Our pleasure, Martha. Thanks for watching!
Interesting video, and you are right, "R" sound is the most difficult consonant to pronounce. It gets on my nerves.... Thanks for the video. As a Peruvian student, your "R" sound is completely different from my Spanish "R" sound. Useful video, love you so much.... Congratulations.
Ah yes, there's a lot of difference between our Rs and Spanish Rs. So glad you liked this video, Cristhian. Warm greetings to you in Peru.
I have no words to say how much I love this channel! You're both really kind and nice! You both talk so gently that I feel like binge watching your videos. I'm an English teacher too! I recommended your channel to all my students. Thank you so much for sharing with us your knowledge and time! Greetings from Brazil!
Hello Reggie. Greetings to you in Brazil and thank you so much for recommending our channel.
I am trying to use British accent to talk with my British friend, this helped a lot! Thanks!
Benjamin. Let us know how that works out. Does t improve your ability to communicate with your friend?
Thank you for your useful pronunciation videos!
So glade they're useful Furkan. Thanks for writing.
So beautifully explained
Really enjoyed and learned a lot from this video about R sound
Love you guys so much
Stay blessed
😊💖🇬🇧🇺🇸
:-)
it’s very hard for me to pronounce “Where were you yesterday?” , where and were sound very similar in my pronunciation. But after your video I know how to improve my pronunciation. Thank you, my dear teachers!
Kateryna, it is so gratifying for us to know we're helping. Thank you so much for writing to us and for watching our video.
Hi Vicki Hi Jay it's a pleasure to watch your videos they are very useful thanks a lot
I hope you have a great weekend
Thank you so much Aparecido. We're delighted to have you with us.
I love and respect both of u so much!
Thank you so much!
I appreciate this video. Thank you. This is one of the reasons why I sometimes could not pass my speech recognittion from my global english academy course. It was very difficult for me when I was a teen. It had to sound exactly the same. Otherwise I couldnt pass. Now I understand why it was so difficult. I was learning with the American system and trying the same way with the course. Im glad because other people wont have the same problem
Glad it was helpful!
I just came over your channel. It's adorable :D. I grew up in Germany (where I still live). We learn British English here but one of my grandmas is American so my accent is mostly American English.
Thanks for sharing that, M. And thanks for watching our video.
You are so nice and smiley! I was very pleased to watch the video! Thank you! :)
We're so glad you enjoy our videos, Сергей Скорбилин. Thanks for letting us know and thanks for watching.
Hello sir I am from India and I really appreciate your video it is excellent and you both are very clear and I saw your videos and I am your fan now such a stunning way to teach lol..
Hi Rahul. Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated.
I love your videos! Could you make a video focused on all the “a” sounds?
woow thank you very much sir & madam. Both of you described this content very attractively.....
Glad you liked it Shiny World. Thanks for writing. :-)
Perfect explanation, a very wellmade video. Somehow I felt your positive energy while watching it.
Hi Lili, we're very glad you found this video worthwhile. Thanks for writing to us and thanks for watching.
Thanks for your class. From Bogota-Colombia.
Antartus, you are most welcome. Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you very much, u 2 are just a wonderful couple ❤️ greetings from Libya
Thanks so much for the kind words Mohammed. Much appreciated. :-)
I love British Accent😍😍😍
I'm trying to speak in British and I think I'm getting better from day to day. I love you guys❤❤❤
Thant's great to hear ItsBorixon. Keep up the good work.
I can't believe that it took so much time for me to discover this awesome channel!
Hi Lemu and welcome to our channel. It's great to have you with us. :-)
Nice complicity between you both, guys...
Thank you for having illustrated in a way so funny the difference between the both pronunciations of the R sound!
Thanks so much Francoise. So glad you liked it. When I first came to the US, Jay would sometimes repeat back things I said with his own accent. He maintained he was doing it to check he understood but I think it was because he wanted me to say it the way he thinks is correct. I think he's given up on that idea now. :-)
I like your's lessons 😍 thank you so much
You are welcome oyunmaa! Thanks for watching.
Best explanation ever!
So glad it was useful, Heba.
Your video is so helpful i love it mate, some years i have problems with this sound thanks for making my r sound a little better, now i need more practice to make this sound perfect .
Do glad it was useful Sanjaya! Keep up the good work!
Nice! Thanks from brazil!!
Your videos are really very helpful, thank you so much! Daniel from Brazil here!
You are most welcome Daniel. And thank you so much for watching.
An excellent lesson
Thanks ark linguistics.
really really useful and helpful video for showing the difference between the two accents.
thank you very much.
very great work of you. ❤😘😘
So glad you liked it Ahmed. :-)
@@SimpleEnglishVideos
with pleasure.
i love you so much
God bless you!
❤❤😍😗😘❤💙💗💙💛❤
I love your video ! Amazing explanation , I was wondering that for a long time. Now all are clear. Thank you very much.
So glad it was useful Madame Italy! Thanks for writing.
Oh you are one love! Thank you so much from Colombia.
Hi Johanna. Thank you so much for the kind words. Greetings from Philadelphia.
Very good the video,i'm from Brazil in at school,we studying the accent american english.
So glad you liked it Vitor! Greetings to you in Brazil.
Very good mam and sir.I was concerned about it but now this is clear .thank you very much
You are most welcome, Madhab. Thanks for watching.
Hi from Brazil. I enjoy watching you.
Hi Rose and greetings to you in Brazil. So glad you like the videos.
Thank you so much! Your classes are really helpful.
That's great to hear! Thanks Jaladuka.
I love this Channel. ❤ Thank you.
That's great to hear. Thanks Esteban! :-)
Thank you very much ! I completely understood the r sound and its differences between RP and American !!
We're so glad it was useful Axel. :-)
I have a distinct Boston accent so sometimes I don't pronounce the "R" at all. You should include me in this video for some really noticeable differences!
Oh the famous Boston R! Thanks so much for chipping in about this interesting regional variation Sen Dia.
Thanks! I'm not fah from Pahk Street and Boston Hahbah! @@SimpleEnglishVideos
thank you for your efforts
You are mos welcome, Man Serious. Thanks for watching.
Despite its hilarious it’s fascinating and very useful thank you so much 👍👍👍👍
We're so glad you like this video, Rachid. Thanks for letting us know and thanks for watching.
Excellent lesson! Is there any difference between the "L" sound in American and British english? Thanks!
Hi Carlos. Great question and no, there's no significant difference.
Greetings from Poland 💛 I really enjoy watching your videos ✨
That's great to hear. Thanks for writing M_A_J_A.
You are amazing! I'm Brazilian and love your videos. I hope you can reach more people and make it to more and more subscribers =)
Hi Dani. Thanks for the kind words and support. Thank you so much for watching out videos.
These guys are awesome!
Thanks for the kind words, Arpan. And thanks for watching our video.
This is an incredibly helpful video. American English is a LOT harder for me to speak because of the incredibly strong Rs. It's not that I can't say it, I have pretty much perfected it in words with 1 or 2 syllables, but anything else, especially words with two Rs, and when the emphasis is put on the Rs themselves, I blurt out something completely unintelligible. I know why that is. My tongue can't flap back and forth in my mouth that quickly that most native American English speakers are used to. This also makes the THR sound very difficult too, for me. Unlike when I try to emulate the THR (among other) sounds in the British accent.
The phonetics in American English seem really complex and require a lot of muscle movement to me than the more simpler British English. I like how Vicki puts it, it's a lot more "gentle". I feel American English is more difficult to learn for people whose native language have the rolled/trilled Rs (like my own). It also could be why I prefer the American English as, not only is it more of a challenge and therefore more fun to learn, but it also feels that as I get better and better practicing these sounds this quickly, it ends up making it easier for me to make sounds across the board. My British English accent got a whole lot better and faster when I tried learning the AE accent first.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this Faizan. I love your descriptions. They're really helpful for us for learning how to explain things better for other learners.
Quite educational, wonderful
Thanks Tomor Khashir. We appreciate your comments.
Another wonderful video from the most amazing couple in the world 😊 I LOVED the fridge anecdote, hehehe 😂 It made me laugh a lot! Thanks Vicki and Jay ☺
So glad you liked it Ahmed. You know I nearly didn't include that fridge anecdote because I wasn't happy with my American accent, but now I'm glad I did.
Very nice and useful explanation!! You can do more like this about "r" and others sounds...or from time to time refresh our minds about all this matter...
Thanks Carlos. So glad you liked it. There are some other sounds that we say differently too. There are a some vowel sounds, the yod, some different word stress patterns and of course the infamous flap t. We'll try to make some videos about them over time.
Vicki. Can you make a video about the collective noun and how to use either and neither? Please. Thank you I'm hoping that you can help me.
GENIUS ,CONGRATULATIONS FROM ARGENTINA.
Thanks so much Juan. :-)
Thank you so much for these clear explanations, I found your channel today and just subscribed to it. I like the beautiful contrast you two make explaining English. You are adorable. Thank you for these useful lessons!..loved the "fridges" story by the way. Greetings from Dominican Republic!
Hi Jensyart. Thank you so much for joining our Simple English Videos community and thanks for the very kind words. We look forward to hearing more from you.
please more english videos.We are the learners who is very intrested in english. I depand on you
HI Gamora. Thanks for writing to us. We are continuing to produce more videos for you. And if you check our channel you'll find about 300 videos you can watch. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching our videos.
Hello, greetings from Costa Rica. This is a Top-notch video, very Catchy. I speak with a British accent so I liked the video context, I think it's very understandable when American and British English speakers have a conversation among them. If we focus on regional accents that might be something to take into account which a different issue...innit?
Hello Chico Albert. Great to meet you and greetings to you in Costa Rica. And yes, there are regional variations with these sounds. We mentioned some in the video, but quite possibly we'll hear from some viewers about some more in these comments.
I can't roll my Rs as my native language (Italian) requires, so it makes me really happy to be able to pronounce Rs in English correctly, especially with an American pronunciation 😄
Oh that's funny! Thanks for sharing this Merri. :-)
I can do that either, I have a tongue tie so I can't make the sound
I'm a native English speaker but I could never roll my Rs in any of my six years of Spanish class 😛
I loved your video so much ❤
Thanks for letting us know Ola, and thank you for watching.
You two are so cute! I've finally gotten the difference! Thanks SO much!!! That's so clear I'll share the video!
Thanks for making videos ! Love you all ❤
You're very welcome Baixzqm. Thanks for watching!
I LOVED your videos! Do you have any video where we could learn the international phonetic alphabet? If not, it would be great and helpful idea for no native English speaker like me to finally understand the challenging and difficult phonetic symbols. Thanks!!
Hi Maria. No, I'm afraid we don't have such a video. Thank you for the suggestion.
I really love your videos!! I’m from Israel and I love English
Hello Gal! Great to have you with us.
Amazing video! Entertaining to watch as always
So glad you liked it Dan. Thanks for writing. :-)
I assume you both sometimes argue about how to pronounce some words at home. 😂😂😂
Ha! Oh Ra-ed. You bet we argue - all the time! I'll say a word and sometimes Jay will repeat it back, as if I've said it wrongly and he's trying to teach me the right way to say it. He's getting better at holding his tongue now, but it's taken years of training on my part. :-) This song kind of sums up our lives: ruclips.net/video/icZRl9wAMUI/видео.html
Simple English Videos
Ha ha, you made me laugh. It's just like prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. They're also having cultural and linguistic challenges. 😂😂😂
You’re both very good teachers!! 😊👍🏻👍🏻
@@MrRQBQ
My bad! It was just unintentional mistake.
@@raed2178 No worries, easily done.
Thank you guys!
I've just got around to watching this new weekly video. Vicki your fridge story is so funny :)
Hello Haider! So glad you liked it. And that fridge story is 100% true. :-)
Thank you for teaching me English!
You're very welcome Pawas.
Thank you for the very helpful video. You are wonderful!
So glad it was helpful Whashin. Thanks for writing.
You two are great
Thanks so much, Jenna.
love it :) thanks ! now I can switch the style whenever I want :)
You guys are so adorable!💜
Thanks so much Nana. :-)
I have an RP accent and when speaking with an American lady on holiday she had no idea what I was saying however I understood her perfectly
Pallas Athena, this is Jay writing back to you. I think Vicki's accent was RP, and for 24 years, I managed to get most of what she said. Or perhaps that was the reason our marriage lasted so long - she never told me what I might have missed. :-)
As a New Yorker. I hear more similarities with the British accent and the NE American accent. Particularly with the R sound.
It's true Amir. Perhaps a generation or two ago, sophisticated New Yorkers (and those who wanted to sound sophisticated) often adopted elements of the British Accent, or inherited it from their parents. A good example is Franklin Roosevelt, the wartime president of the United States. See if you can find some of his speeches on RUclips and you'll see what I mean. This is Jay writing back to you. I grew up in New York. :-)
Thanks for this video ! I’ve always struggled with the “r” sounds in English, as a native French speaker I would say that I have an ultra rhotic accent, we do prononce the “r” very strongly in french. Moreover, I always try to sound more British than American !
PS: Also, I love both of you !!! 🧡
Thanks so much Le Petit Lord. So glad it was useful. This is Vicki here and of course when I was learning French, getting the R sounds right was always a challenge for me. :-)
Oh I see, so the R seems to be hard either way.
Happy Holidays !
What a great, interesting video! I've studied English language at university for not less than 5 years, but they never told us about the rhotic and non-rhotic r-sounds! I think listening to AE and BE with "non-native" ears it's the "rhotic-r" pronunciation, which distincts AE from BE the most! :O
Sooo interesting! Thank you so much for this video Jay and Vicki! *___*
Hello Stefanie. So glad you enjoyed this. And I agree. The rhotic and non-rhotic Rs is probably the biggest difference between American and British English.
You two are adorable!
Tracie. That's so nice of you to say. Thank you very much and thanks for watching our video.
Another great video!
Thanks Vicki 💜
So glad you liked it Maria. Thanks for writing!
Good pair of teachers.
Thanks for the kind words Naththandige.
Excellent young man.
mhmhabib6537, thank you. Glad you liked the video. I wanted to mention that we are starting a new live course with Tom. It focuses on improving your English speaking skills. It's a 5 hour course, spread out over every Monday morning in April, starting April 1. The total for all 5 sessions is only 74.95 Euros. If you think you need to improve your speaking skills, get started by clicking this link. www.simpleenglishvideos.com/assessment-form/. And thanks for watching our videos. - Jay
Thank you for your video! You're so cute. I actually have some questions. Could you tell me why (1:14) there is an "ə" sound in British English, but there is no "ə" in American English? As for the second question, I wonder what does the "(r)" in brackets in BrEng mean? I see that in AmEng "r" has no brackets. I also have a dictionary with the British transcripton and I see this "r" in brackets at the end of words as well. Maybe it's about the Linking R sound which can appear if we add something after the word? As I suppose, there are no brackets in AmEng because the "r" sound is always pronounced in it. Would you mind telling me if I'm wrong or right? I'm interested
Hi Vladislav! You seem to have carried out a very serious comparative analysis of the phonetic alphabet in American vs British pronunciation.
Answering your first question, the sound ə is widely presented in both British and American English - for example, in weak forms of function words (wəs, cən etc) or in lots of unstressed syllables (bənanə). In the words ear and air the ə sound is also present, but in this video Vicki and Jay chose this particular transcription to emphasise the fact that it’s the r sound that we mostly hear at the end of these words. The ə sound is also there, but it gets overlaid by rhotic r in American English.
As for the second question, yes, you’re quite right. You sometimes see the r sound in brackets to account for a great variety of accents within the UK. Also, very good point about the linking r! - Thanks for your excellent observations. - Yana
@@SimpleEnglishVideos Thank you for yor answer! But I still wonder who is Yana because I see know only about Vicky and Jay in the videos
As a Scot, when I went to the US. I asked for "batteries" to a shop assistant and she looked at me as if I was speaking Klingon, I had to put on some faux American accent to be understood. This happened often. My friend and I were speaking on the bus and a man asked us if we were speaking Spanish. Crazy! I suppose our accents aren't really heard very often so it can be very difficult to understand us.
Oh that's funny AnAtomintheUniverse. I think you're right that Scottish accents may not be heard much here. But you know I had a similar experience when I was talking to my daughter (who has an English accent) and someone asked us if we were French. I have a Welsh friend who gets asked that a lot here too. I think we get a lot more exposure to American accents in the UK than many American's get to different British accents.
Nah, these people are uncultured.
I rarely have an issue understanding accents. Even when English isn’t a persons first language.
Hmm. My impression was they were very bright. English was often a second, third or fourth language for some of them.
Did you ask for some Bat Trees? LOL
That's not how most people here say it. I'd say it sounds more like badderies.
Great video !!!
We're so glad you liked it Carles DE LA TORRE. Thanks for letting us know and thank you for watching our video.
@@SimpleEnglishVideos thanks for the answer, it's a pleasure watching your videos !!! (I learn a lot !!!)
You are amazing.... Thank you so much
Anderson, thank you so much for the kind words and thank yo for watching.
Great job as usual. You guys always amaze me.
Thanks so much, Mike. Praise from the master! Much appreciated.
Very good video on this subject.
Thank you Liam Li. :-)
I love both of you.
That's so kind of you to say Yojana. Thanks for watching our video.
Thank you so much you both for such great english learning lessons. It helps me to speak english more good that's why I like your videos so much so I want to ask you that do you have any english learning app for IOS?
Hello Hafsa. We don't but you will find lots of our videos are available on a learning app called Mooveez. www.mooveez.com/. You should be able to find it in the apple store. Happy studying. :-)
Great video I really enjoyed this 👏 🤩
So glad, Coban! Thanks for writing.
I'm Canadian, and we mostly have rhotic dialects. But you can sure tell a Maritimer from a western Canadian.
Thanks so much for sharing this neilpk70. Are you from a Maritime Province?