How to make this sound:

Video Text:

The rr sound.  I think this is one of the hardest sounds to teach to those who don't have it in their native language.  So let's break it down.  For me, the sound kind of comes from uh, uh, this kind of sound when you loosely let air pass through your vocal cords.  Then when you form the mouth around that uh-uh-uh-ur-ur-rr-rr, it's kind of bringing the sound from the vocal cords more forward.  Rr.  So, the tongue.  The tongue is fattening up a little bit in the back, and it's coming up, and it's pressing the insides of the top teeth.  Rr, rr.  As it comes up to do that, the rest of the tongue goes back down a little bit in the front, but it's not just laying there.  It's very active, and it's actually pointing up and out a little bit.  But it's not touching anything.  Rr, rr, rr, rr.  The teeth come close to being together, without being together.  Rr, rr.  And, as you can see, the lips come in a little bit at the edges, which means also that they push out a little bit.  Rr, rr.  Sample words:  run, risk, weather.  Sample sentence:  It's dark and rainy, and I'm trying to write my friend.  Run, risk, weather. It's dark and rainy, and I'm trying to write a friend.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol:  []  Please note:  many sources use [] instead.

Careful, there are only a handful of languages that have this exact "r" sound, but a lot of languages that have a similiar "r" sound.  Learning how to make the American English "r" correctly will do a lot to improve your overall sound when you speak.

Here is Wikipedia's page on this sound, with a list of its occurrences in other languages.