As we saw in Part 1, the General American accent is rhotic, meaning the letter r is always pronounced.
To understand the American ‘R’, try paying attention to these words on videos/movies:
cardboard
car
enforce
better
paper
The r sound in American English does not use a “trill” like some other languages such as Spanish.
If that seems a bit difficult to understand, don’t worry! All you have to do is learn where to put your tongue.
When making the American English r sound, open your lips slightly and place your tongue right in the middle of your mouth, with the sides of your tongue touching your back teeth. Then, curl the tip of your tongue up toward the top of your mouth.
The trick is to make sure the tip of your tongue does not touch anything, especially not the back of your teeth!
To practice this, try saying the word “ear.” Start with the e sound, then curl up the tip of your tongue. The sound should change from an e to an r like magic!