Consonant /r/ phoneme

The /r/ sound is a consonant in English, written with the letter <r>. It tends to pose challenges for ESL/EFL learners, particularly for those L1 has no similar sound. In older language textbooks, it is referred to as a liquid consonant. In modern terms, it is an approximant consonant, or in layperson's terms, a semi-vowel or semi-consonant. The correct symbol in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is /ɹ/, but for the sake of convenience, the symbol /r/ will be used here. In this article, slash marks like /r/ indicate a phoneme, while angled brackets like <r> indicate a letter or spelling.

1 Linguistic description

• Place of articulation: The tongue tip approaches the alveolar ridge (the gum ridge above the upper teeth) or behind the alveolar gum ridge; thus, it is alveolar or post-alveolar.
• Manner of articulation: It is classified as an approximant, that is, it is produced by narrowing the air passageway between the tongue tip and the alveolar region, but not enough to produce any friction in the air stream.
• Phonation: It is voiced, i.e., the vocal cords (glottis) are in vibration.

In older texts, it was classified as a liquid, along with the /l/ sound. This, however, is a very outdated and imprecise term, as "liquid" was used for alveolar sounds that did not fit neatly into major categories like stops. The tongue tip creates a narrow passageway as it approaches the alveolar region, but the air simply flows through this passageway. For this reason, it is called an approximant, which falls between fricatives and vowels in terms of sonority. Thus, /r/ belongs to the same category as /w/ as in "watt" and the "y" sound as in "yes".

personal names	place names
John Leece - John Reese Betty Lawson - Betty Rorson Peter Lowe - Peter Roe Mark Warne - Mark Vaughan Paul Wayne - Paul Vane Ann Whicker - Ann Vicker Alison Ray - Alison Way Les Right - Les White Susan Wain - Susan Rayne	Loxwood - Rockswood Lorton - Rawton Lambsgate - Ramsgate Vines Cross - Whines Cross Vorden - Warden Venby - Whenby Ryton - Wyton Ridcombe - Widcombe Rateby - Waitby

1.1 Tongue twisters

1. Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.
2. Three free throws.
3. All roads lead to Rome.
4. Richard’s wretched ratchet wrench.
5. The rice grows near the river.
6. A frugal rural ruler.
7. Are our oars okay?
8. He’s literally literary.
9. Climbing crimes are lures for crowded clowns with crowns.
10. Collecting the corrections is the role of the elderly.
11. Critical cricket critics.
12. Three free thugs set three thugs free.
13. Freshly fried fresh flesh.
14. I correctly recollect Rebecca MacGregor’s reckoning.
15. Are Roland and Sally rallying here in their lorry?
16. Dwayne Dwiddle drew a drawing of dreaded Dracula.
17. Greta Gruber grabbed a group of green grapes.
18. A leaky rear latch on the listing bark lifted right up and the water rushed in.
19. Is there a pleasant peasant present?
20. It’s the right light with the glimmer in the mirror.
21. Jerry’s berry jelly really rankled his broiling belly.
22. Laura and Larry rarely lull their rural roosters to sleep.
23. Randy Rathborne wrapped a rather rare red rabbit.
24. Ruby Rugby’s brother bought and brought her some rubber baby-buggy bumpers.
25. Running rivers reach reckless rapids.
26. The crow flew over the river with a lump of raw liver. The rat ran by the river with a lump of raw liver.
27. There are free fleas for all the loyal royalty.
28. Tie twine to three tree twigs.
29. Trina Tweety tripped two twittering twins under a twiggy tree.
30. Yellow arrows frilled with reefed leaves are rarely light.
31. How much myrtle would a wood turtle hurdle if a wood turtle could hurdle myrtle? A wood turtle would hurdle as much myrtle as a wood turtle could hurdle if a wood turtle could hurdle myrtle.

2 Consonant clusters with /r/

The following are near-minimal pairs that contrast consonant clusters with /r/ with simple consonants.