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Old February 19, 2012, 10:24 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
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Native Language: American English
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Hi,

Learning to recognize the differences between the two 'r' sounds is a difficult task for those not accustomed to using them in their mother tongue. It's made a bit easier if you speak a language that has a close approximation. American English has a close approximation to the clipped, or single 'r' (what you called 'simple r'), but it has no equivalent for the double, or rolled 'r' (what you called the 'hard r').

Since your mother tongue is Chinese, you don't have any sound that approximates either letter, so you'll have twice the challenge.

Your pronunciation of the clipped 'r' sounds a lot like the letter 'l'. It is quite common for Chinese speakers to confuse the two sounds, so don't despair. From what I understand, a native Chinese speaker cannot differentiate between the 'l' and the 'r'.

Your pronunciation of the rolled 'r' is close. There are threads here in the forum that contain samples of the rolled 'r' (and the clipped 'r', for that matter). Here's one.

Last edited by Rusty; February 20, 2012 at 12:14 AM. Reason: Linked to a thread with pronunciation help
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