Today’s lesson is brought to you by the letter R. Because I’m a British English speaker, I don’t always pronounce the letter R when it appears in a word, but occasionally I pronounce an R that isn’t there. If you think that’s weird, let me explain.
To use a technical term, most Americans are rhotic. This means that if you see a R, an American will pronounce it. However most British speakers of English (like me) are non-rhotic, which means they only pronounce the letter R if it’s immediately followed by a vowel sound.
Here are some samples of me saying words that contain the letter R, but you’ll notice I don’t actually say any Rs. That’s because in each case the R is followed by a consonant or is at the end of the word:
Car
Alarm
Award
Corner
But in the following words I pronounce all the Rs because each R is immediately followed by a vowel:
Around
Restaurant
Refrigerated
Of course when we speak we don’t just say individual words; we put the words together to make sentences. Here’s an example:
“My car alarm went off.”
What do you notice about the way I said that sentence? That’s right, I pronounced the R on the end of car, which I didn’t pronounce when I just said car by itself. That’s because the next word (alarm) begins with a vowel. We call this a linking R.
How about this sentence? “I have a tea break at four o’clock.”
Again we have a linking R here. I pronounce the R on the end of four because o’clock begins with a vowel.
So that’s linking R. But something else sometimes happens. This is me saying “I had no idea about that.”
If you listen closely you’ll notice that in between idea and about, I pronounce an R that isn’t even there: “I had no idea-R-about that.” Non-rhotic speakers like me will sometimes pronounce an R that isn’t there when the following word begins with a vowel. This is known as an intrusive R.
Here’s another example of intrusive R. “I saw an amazing film last night.” Notice how I slip in an R between saw and an:
And here’s me saying Pamela Anderson:
Just for a laugh, watch this video of a Pamela Anderson lookalike from Liverpool in England. Notice how both she and her dad say Pamela-R-Anderson just like I do.
For more on intrusive R, please watch this video from the BBC.
The letter R is one reason why you might find American English easier to speak than British English. Even if you are learning British English, there’s nothing wrong with pronouncing Rs wherever they occur in a word, just like most Americans do. However you’ll still need to understand speakers of British English and I hope this post has helped.
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