Hello there!
This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we're going to review the R-colored
Let's start with a question:
what are the R-colored vowel sounds?
Here's a definition from Sounds American:
In American English,
anytime in any word,
when you see a vowel followed by the letter 'r' in the same syllable,
you have an R-colored vowel sound.
For example,
In all these words, the 'r' follows a vowel,
and they occur in one syllable.
The sounds
/ɝ/ - /ɚ/ - /ɪr/ - /ɛr/ - /ɑr/ - /ɔr/ and /aɪr/
are the R-colored vowels.
The R-colored vowels are the characteristic feature of American English.
They also make it very different from British English.
If you take 10 thousand English words,
about 2,400 of them will have at least one R-colored vowel sound.
So, if you mispronounce these sounds,
you'll mispronounce every fourth word.
Imagine how much your foreign accent may stand out.
Unfortunately, this happens very often.
There are several reasons for that.
First,
every R-colored vowel has the /r/ sound in it.
The American /r/ is different from the Rs in many other languages.
So it's often involuntarily distorted by non-native speakers.
Second,
You may remember,
that there are 12 single vowels and 3 diphthongs in American English.
The /r/ creates only 7 R-colored vowels,
which makes them a little easier to memorize and learn.
However,
the spelling of any American English vowel is never easy.
And the R-colored vowels are no exception.
Take a look:
Here are the various combinations of letters
that represent just the 7 R-colored vowels:
These five combinations
are pronounced as /ɚ/ in weak syllables.
All of those but one, sound like the /ɝ/ in stressed syllables.
And here are the most common spellings for the /ɔr/ sound.
Note that some of them may sound like /ɛr/ in other words.
...And in some other words - as the R-colored vowel /ɑr/.
No worries, we're almost done.
Here's how you can recognize the /ɪr/ sound.
Luckily, the /aɪr/ triphthong is pretty straightforward.
It's mostly represented by this combination of letters.
This is quite overwhelming and may look crazy.
And it often is.
But that's how English works.
No wonder that almost all non-native speakers distort and confuse the R-colored vowels,
even if their English is really good.
So if you want to make just one major improvement in your American pronunciation,
start with the R-colored vowels.
Now, let's get more familiar with these sounds.
So, each R-colored vowel has the /r/ sound.
But how exactly are the R-colored vowels made?
This is what happens:
the /r/ sound merges with a preceding vowel sound
and forms a new R-colored vowel.
Take a look:
The /ɪr/ is made by merging the /ɪ/ and the /r/:
The /ɛr/ is made by merging the /ɛ/ and the /r/:
The /ɑr/ is made by merging the /ɑ/ and the /r/:
The /ɔr/ is made by merging the /ɔ/ and the /r/:
These vowels are diphthongs,
as they are formed by merging two sounds into one.
The /aɪr/, however,
is made by merging the two sounds of the diphthong /aɪ/ and the /r/ into one sound.
So it's a triphthong.
What about the /ɝ/ and the /ɚ/?
Well, these two are monophthongs,
which means that you pronounce only one sound when making them.
They are two distinct sounds of American English.
At this point, we usually provide words for practice.
We'll definitely do that in our next videos,
when we talk about each R-colored vowel in detail.
Before you go,
let's summarize what you've learned in this Overview video:
If you see a word with a vowel that is followed by the /r/
and they are in the same syllable,
you have an R-colored vowel.
Approximately every fourth word in American English has an R-colored vowel.
Hate to break it to you,
but nearly all non-native speakers mispronounce R-colored vowels.
The /ɝ/ and the / ɚ/ are the R-colored monophthongs.
The /ɝ/, ɪr/, /ɛr/, /ɑr/, and /ɔr/ are the R-colored diphthongs.
And the /aɪr/ is the R-colored triphthong.
Sounds like fun, right?
By the way, did we say that we like your comments?
Like this one:
Meida said:
I found a trick!
A lot of people can't pronounce the /l/ sound.
The method is
think about the word "love" when making it, it'll help."
It's sweet, isn't it?
Just in case, you can think about the word "like" too. ;)
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