In this video we are going to bring some clarity into 3 IPA sound symbols (and sounds) that are often confused with one another. We are going to learn about:

1. the standard English R in British and American English. The official IPA sound symbol is a lowercase upside-down R letter: /ɹ/. To help you understand how this sound is formed, I made some plasticine models – extra for you 🙂
2. Why many student books still use the symbol /r/ for the English R instead of /ɹ/
3. The rolled R sound we have in Spanish, represented by the IPA symbol /r/. This sound is a trill. I will show you how this sound is produced, so get ready to practise with me. I promise this will be fun!
4. The standard German R: another trill. This one is formed at the back of the throat with the velum vibrating. It is also called a uvular trill. Sometimes this sound is realised as a fricative instead of a trill, in which case the IPA symbol is an upside-down capital R = /ʁ/. The difference to the Flap T (also called Tap) /ɾ/. The IPA symbol looks really similar, but this is a very different sound that we sometimes use instead of a /t/ or /d/ sound.