The r sounds in IPA: r, ɾ, ʁ and English ɹ

The letter r stands for at least four different sounds in Spanish, French and English, and IPA gives each its own symbol.

Four rs, four symbols

The r of Spanish perro, of Spanish pero, of French être and of English red are four different sounds.

Symbol	Example	What the tongue does
r	perro /ˈpero/	Rolled (trill)
ɾ	pero /ˈpeɾo/	Tapped once
ʁ	être /ɛtʁ/	Scraped at the back
ɹ	red /red/	Comes close

Try it

Pero means but; perro means dog. Which is this?

/ˈpero/

Strict IPA r against dictionary r

English has only one r sound, so English dictionaries use the plainest letter for it. The chart's own symbol for that sound is ɹ, an upside-down r.

Hear it in six accents

START. American, Scottish and Irish say the r (they are rhotic); the other three do not, and lengthen the vowel instead. Scottish r is often a tap.

Southern British (RP)/kɑː/
General American/kɑɹ/
Australian/kaː/
South African/kɑː/
Scottish/kaɾ/
Irish/kɑːɹ/

Every clip here is a synthetic voice imitating that accent, not a recording of a native speaker. Transcriptions are broad: what a typical speaker of the accent does, highlighted where the accents differ.

Where the tongue works, and what it does

The five differ in two ways: where the tongue works and what it does there.

Symbol	Where	What the tongue does
r	Ridge behind the top teeth	Flutters two or three times
ɾ	Ridge behind the top teeth	Taps once
ʁ	Back of the mouth, near the uvula	A soft scrape
ɹ	Ridge behind the top teeth	Comes close, never touches
ɻ	Tongue tip curled back	Comes close, never touches

Try it

Which symbol fills the gap in French rouge?

/_uʒ/

IPA pulmonic consonants: columns are where in the mouth the sound is made, rows are how the air is let through. In each cell the voiceless sound is on the left and the voiced one on the right. Shaded cells are sounds judged impossible. Highlighted: the sounds of this lesson, which are r, ɾ, ʁ, ɹ, ɻ.
Manner	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive	pb		td			ʈɖ	cɟ	kɡ	qɢ	impossible	ʔimpossible
Nasal	m	ɱ	n			ɳ	ɲ	ŋ	ɴ	impossibleimpossible	impossibleimpossible
Trill	ʙ		r					impossibleimpossible	ʀ		impossibleimpossible
Tap or flap		ⱱ	ɾ			ɽ		impossibleimpossible			impossibleimpossible
Fricative	ɸβ	fv	θð	sz	ʃʒ	ʂʐ	çʝ	xɣ	χʁ	ħʕ	hɦ
Lateral fricative	impossibleimpossible	impossibleimpossible	ɬɮ							impossibleimpossible	impossibleimpossible
Approximant		ʋ	ɹ			ɻ	j	ɰ			impossibleimpossible
Lateral approximant	impossibleimpossible	impossibleimpossible	l			ɭ	ʎ	ʟ		impossibleimpossible	impossibleimpossible

In this lesson (tap a linked one for its card)Not in this lesson Judged impossible Left of a cell: voiceless. Right: voiced.Scroll sideways for the back of the mouth.

The five r sounds on the official chart: a trill, a tap, a fricative and two approximants, at three places.

The symbols

See them on the IPA chart

Press play to hear each real word; the highlighted letters make the sound.

Rolled r, the alveolar trill

On the chart: Voiced alveolar trill

The tongue tip flutters against the ridge behind the top teeth, two or three times: Spanish rr, and r at the start of a word or after l, n or s, as in perro and rápido. To learn it, start from the single tap of pero and push more air past a loose tongue tip.

Tapped r, as in Spanish pero

On the chart: Voiced alveolar tap

One quick tap of the tongue tip, the same movement as the t of American water. Pero (but) and perro (dog) differ only in /ɾ/ against /r/.

pero /ˈpeɾo/Spanish
ahora /aˈoɾa/Spanish
para /ˈpaɾɐ/Portuguese

French r, as in être

On the chart: Voiced uvular fricative

Made at the back, with the tongue near the uvula: a soft scrape, voiced in rouge and voiceless after t, as in être. Most of our Portuguese pages print it too, as in rio, though many Brazilians say that r more like an English h.

rouge /ʁuʒ/French
être /ɛtʁ/French
rio /ˈʁiu/Portuguese

English r, the approximant

On the chart: Voiced alveolar approximant

The tongue comes close to the ridge behind the teeth but never touches it, so nothing taps or trills. British dictionaries and our pages print it /r/: red is /red/.

Curled r, the retroflex approximant

On the chart: Voiced retroflex approximant

Like /ɹ/ with the tongue tip curled back. Many Americans say something close to it in car, and the caipira r of inland São Paulo is one: porta [ˈpɔɻtɐ]. Many Mandarin speakers say the r of 人 (rén) this way, though our Mandarin page writes it /ʐ/.

No word page on this site prints /ɻ/, so there is nothing honest to play here.

Key takeaways

In strict IPA, plain r is the rolled trill: Spanish perro.
ɾ is a single tap: Spanish pero.
ʁ is made at the back of the mouth: French rouge and être.
ɹ is the strict symbol for the English r; dictionaries print /r/.

Drill

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Which word is this?

/ˈpero/

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