Transcript of AE 990 - How to Pronounce R and L Sounds in English

G'day, you mob! Pete here and welcome to another episode of Aussie English. So this is going to be an advanced pronunciation lesson where I teach you the difference between the pronunciation of L and R; /l/ and /r/ in Australian English. Are you ready? Let's get into it.

Alright, guys, so I know just how many of you have trouble with these two sounds: L and R in English, they are very similar. But the key to learning the difference between these is just practise, practise, practise. Anyone can do it. So don't give up hope if you're finding these two sounds to be a pain in the bum.

So today is going to be an advanced lesson where we compare these sounds and we go through exercises in order for you to learn to produce them, to pronounce them like a native speaker. It'll be broken up into four different sections.

In Part One, we're going to practise pronouncing the /l/ L sound in English. In Part Two, we will practise the /r/ R sound in English. In Part Three, we're going to do a comparative pronunciation exercise where we will say minimal pairs with the L sound and the R sound so that you can practise going between the two and producing both sounds. And in Part Four, this is going to be a listening comprehension test to where you will have to see if you can hear the difference between /l/ and /r/ in Australian English.

Lastly, guys, I have advanced tutorials breaking down the articulation in the mouth, the placement of the tongue and how to make the L and R sound in English. But I'll tell you how you can get access to those videos later on today. So when you're ready, let's get into it.

First, let's go over the sound /l/, the L sound in English, which is represented by this IPA symbol on the screen now. Now you guys are probably thinking, Pete, what the hell? There are a whole bunch of different L sounds in English, including the Light L, which is what we're going to tackle today, the dark L and the syllabic L, with and without lateral release. And you are 100 percent correct.

As I said, we're just going to tackle the light /l/ sound in today's lesson. This is the one that gets confused with the /r/ R sound in Australian English. A little note about spelling. There are words where l appears in the spelling of words like walk, talk, folk, and half. However, the L is not pronounced, ok? So, just be aware of that.

You'll hear the light L sound in English when it's followed by a vowel sound. So it's going to be at the front of a word or at the front of a syllable with a vowel sound after it, such as 'look', 'let', 'laser'.

It can be inside of a word, as I said, for example, 'falling', 'whaler', 'elite'. And it can even be at the ends of words that are then followed by another word that begins with a vowel sound, as in 'all in', 'fell out', 'male emu'.

So let's practise this sound. I'm going to say the L sound three times by itself and then we're going to practise some words and phrases with the light L sound. Let's go. /l/ /l/ /l/ 'fly', 'loo', 'bling' 'play' 'alive' 'cloud' 'tall off' 'leech' 'glow' 'dealer' 'glass' 'lake' 'collect' 'fall over'.

Now, let's go over the sound /r/ for the letter R in Australian English, and this is represented by either of these symbols in IPA. I usually use the upside down /r/. You'll hear R at the start of words or at the front of syllables when there is a vowel sound pronounced after the R. This is just like the L sound. So for example, 'red', 'rated'. And then within words, for example, 'boring' or 'correct'.

A little note about spelling. When the letter R appears after a vowel sound and is followed by a consonant sound or no sound at all, in Australian English, it's not pronounced. It's silent. And it just indicates that that vowel sound is a long vowel. For example, 'Ford', 'learn', 'beer', 'wall'. This is because Australian English is non rhotic. Just like Received Pronunciation in British English, meaning that the R sound is only said if it's followed by a vowel sound.

So in the case of words like beer and war, the R sound isn't said unless words coming after those words begin with a vowel sound. For example, 'beer is great', 'war always kills'. When this happens, it's called the Linking R. To learn more about this, check out my video on the Linking R above.

One more note about spelling. You may even hear this sneaky little R sound pronounced in words when there is no R in the spelling of these words. This is called the Intrusive R, and you can check out my video on the Intrusive R above here too. Some examples include 'Australia/r/ is big.' 'Australia/r/ is big.' 'Law /r/ and order', 'law/r/ and order'.

Alright. Anyway, time to practise the R sound. So I'm going to say the R sound three times and then I'm going to go through a list of words and phrases with the R sound in it. Are you ready? Let's do it. /r/ /r/ /r/ 'fry' 'roo' 'bring' 'pray' 'arrive' 'crowd' 'tore off' 'reach' 'grow' 'dearer' 'grass' 'rake' 'correct' 'four over'. Awesome work, now it's time for Part Three!

So in this section, we're going to go through some minimal pairs and these are words that are exactly the same, except for one sound that is different between the two words, a minimal pair. But before we get into that.

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So minimal pairs are really important for learning how to pronounce the difference between two similar sounds distinctively. So in this exercise, I'm going to repeat 14 pairs of words or phrases that are minimal pairs where the only difference is going to be that one has the L /l/ sound and the other has the R /r/ sound in it.

The first one is going to have the /r/ R sound and the second one is going to have the /l/ L sound. Are you ready? Let's go. Fry. Fly. Roo. Loo. Bring. Bling. Pray. Play. Arrive. Alive. Crowd. Cloud. Tore off. Toll of. Reach. Leech. Grow. Glow. Dearer. Dealer. Grass. Glass. Rake. Lake. Correct. Collect. Four over. Fall over.

How did you go?

Alright, guys, now it's time for the final part, Part four, and in this section, we are going to test your listening skills, your ability to hear the difference between these two sounds. So don't be discouraged if you find this exercise really difficult. It is a pretty difficult exercise, just repeat it multiple times and keep practising so that you can try and hone your listening skills to be able to hear the difference between these two sounds.

When you can do that, you're also going to be able to produce these two sounds when speaking as well. Remember, repetition is key. So I'm going to say 14 different words or phrases from the minimal pairs that we went over in part three, except I will only say one of these minimal pairs in each example. Okay, I'm going to display them both on screen, the two minimal pairs as spelling.

And your job is to work out which one I'm saying. Okay, so we're going to use the letter A to represent the R /r/ sound and the letter B to represent the /l/ L sound. OK, remember, write down which one you hear, A B, A B, on a piece of paper and I'll tell you the answers at the end. Are you ready? Let's go.

Fry. Roo. Bling. Pray. Alive. Cloud. Tore off. Leech. Glow. Dearer. Glass. Rake. Collect. Four over. Good work. I hope you got them all right!

So for those listening to this episode on the Aussie English podcast, the answers were A, A, B, A, B, B, A, B, B, A, B, A, B, A. Displayed on screen as well.

So that's it, guys. Remember, if you find these sounds hard, make sure to repeat this episode, repeat this exercise. Just keep doing this again and again and again. If you want to go through the detailed videos of the tutorials so that you can learn how to position the tongue in your mouth, everything like that for these sounds, as well as all the other sounds in Australian English, make sure to check out my Australian Pronunciation Course in the description below or just go to www.aussieenglish.com.au/apc Thanks for joining me and I'll see you soon.