/r/

The American /r/: the tongue pulls back, it never taps

The American English /r/ is nothing like the Spanish one. It's the so-called bunched R: the tongue pulls back and bunches in the middle of the mouth without touching anything. No tap, no trill. It's probably the sound that gives a Spanish speaker away fastest.

How it's made

• 👄 Mouth: lips slightly rounded and pushed forward.
• 👅 Tongue: pulled back and bunched in the center, touching neither palate nor teeth.
• 🔊 Voice: voiced and continuous — you can hold it like a vowel.

You hear it in: red · right · car · very · around

⚠️ The typical Spanish-speaker mistake: using the Spanish r, which taps the alveolar ridge — or worse, the trilled rr. Very with a trill sounds foreign instantly.

By the end you'll be able to: produce an /r/ with no contact and no trill, and hold it without sliding back into the Spanish r.