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In this video we’ll compare two consonant sounds:

/r/ and /l/,

as in the words “pray” and “play”.

In our previous videos, we learned how to make them.

Remember the videos for the /r/ sound,

as in the word “run”

and the /l/ sound,

as in the word “let”?

The /r/ and the /l/ may not sound similar,

but they have some things in common.

Both of them are made with air passing through the mouth

around the sides of the tongue

like a liquid.

This is why they’re called the “liquid” consonants.

Foreign speakers who don’t have these sounds in their native language

often can’t distinguish between the /r/ and the /l/

and may involuntarily distort or swap them in words.

A great way to practice the pronunciation of these two sounds

is to practice them in contrasting word pairs.

Before we begin,

let’s check how well you can differentiate between the /r/ and the /l/ sounds.

You’ll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced.

For example,

“p*ay”.

Can you guess what word you heard?

Let’s try a few more word pairs.

How did you do?

Don’t get discouraged if you didn’t get all the words right.

You’ll improve after doing some pronunciation exercises

in a just minute.

Here are two key distinctions between the /r/ and the /l/:

First,

look at the position of the tip of the tongue.

For the /r/ sound,

the tip of the tongue is raised toward the alveolar ridge,

but it doesn’t touch it.

For the /l/ sound,

the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge

behind your upper front teeth.

Second.

Look at the blade of the tongue:

For the /r/ sound,

the middle of the tongue is lowered,

and the back of the tongue is raised.

For the /l/ sound,

the back of the tongue is lowered.

Let’s pronounce these sounds one after the other:

/r/ - /l/

/r/ - /l/

/r/ - /l/

Now that you’ve reviewed how to make these consonants,

let’s practice pronouncing these sounds in some words.

This is the most important part of your training,

so try to go through as many words as possible.

You’ll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation.

After that you’ll have a few seconds to pronounce the word.

Repeat each word after the speaker,

the first word will have the /r/ consonant sound,

and the second will have the /l/ consonant sound.

Let’s begin!

You’re done!

Congratulations!

To check how much you’ve improved, you can do the word pairs test again.

Click this link to go back and compare the results.

You’ve just practiced two essential American sounds.

Once you get confident pronouncing them,

you’ll be able to take the next steps towards improving your American accent.

You can start working on the r-colored vowels,

which are quite hard to make

without first learning to pronounce the American /r/ consonant sound.

You’ll also find it easier to master the dark /l/,

which is a variation of the /l/ consonant sound

that you practiced in this video.

Thanks for watching!

Let us know what you think in the comments!

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