R (letter)

R is the 17th letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced ar (with that r silent in British English before a consonant or final: ah).

Use in English

R is rather weak in most varieties of English. (Compare the trilled r’s of Spanish and Italian or the guttural r’s of French and German, and the two r sounds of Portuguese: it resembles single, medial and final Portuguese r, never double or initial guttural.)

It is pronounced in the front of the mouth (but not so far as Japanese r: the tongue doesn’t go quite so near the teeth): réd, rêal, rîce, wrîte read = rîght, correct, side, rún, árrow, írritate, érror, cárry, bárrier, wróng, rāther (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).

But it is silent in BrE, before another consonant, although significantly affecting the pronunciation of the preceding vowel (this is sometimes rather confusingly called ‘post-vocalic’ r: pre-consonantal would be more exact): hàrd, vërse, fïrm, wörd, bŏrn, bürn, heàrt, hëard, cürl, nŏrth, wörk, bïrd, përson, làrge, wård, and in îron metal, which in BrE = îon electron.

It can occur before any consonant, although it is rare before j: përjury, màrjoram, Màrjorie.

As in AmE áfterwards, r before consonants is not silent in General American, Scottish, Irish and many other varieties of English, where, in every example given above, the r is distinctly heard.

r is very often doubled in the middle of words, especially after á, é and ú and before ôw and y, giving the short sound of the preceding vowel: árrow, márrow, búrrow, fúrrow, Térry, Dérry, cúrry, sórry, mérry, márry, hárry, húrry. And also in bárrack, bárrier, cárrot, érror, térror, jàrring, bàrring, hárrier, férret. Sometimes it doubles after other sounds: für + -y = fürry, and wòrry (AmE wörry, effect of w on o). And of course before -ed and -ing added to words ending in r: stàrring, bàrred (cf. bŏred, from bŏre, which ends in e). But not always: véry, árid, and never after the sound ã: fãiry, vãry.

rh from initial Greek r, occurs at the beginning of some words; the h is redundant: Rhôdes, rhodedéndron, rhôdium, rhêsus, rhétoric, rhetórical, rhýthm, rhŷme, rhûbarb, rhápsody, rhêa (a as schwa: *rìə) rheûmatism, rheumátic, and beware of diarrhoêa.

wr, too, is, pronounced r; it too tends to appear at the beginning of words, some very common: wrîte read (= rîght correct, side) wróng, wrétch poor (= rétch vomit) wrítten, wréck, wrŷ, awrŷ. Rêad and wrîte; rîght and wróng: both r- followed by wr-.

rw is rare and accidental: fŏrwards, òtherwise, āfterwards.

Initial re- is pronounced ré when part of a long-established word: réverie, recolléct récognise (and in réctify, where ré isn’t actually a prefix) or like an unstressed rí- : recür, revërse, rehëarse, regâle, relŷ, recêive, recoil.

But re-, when less ‘connected’ to the rest of the word, can be stressed equally with the other tonic syllable, as rê-, in verbs: rêcáp, rêdesîgn, rêdo, rêwrîte, rêplây, and receives sole stress in shorter nouns: rêplay, rêtail, and equal stress in longer nouns: rêpercússion, rêdevélopment.

Effect on preceding vowels

r, as we have briefly seen, has an important effect on preceding vowels:

àr: làrva, càr, margarìne (màrj-) stàrve, Càrl, màrk ãr where r is followed by a vowel: vãry, stãre look (= stãir step) cãring, nefãrious, wãres goods, phãraoh (-rô) Clãra spelt, ãir: ãir, fãiry, stãir (= stãre) and similarly in: ãerial, Ãyrshire, mãyor but with a completely different effect after w: wårm, wårning, wårble; ẁarrant, Ẁarwick (= ó, as in ẁas, ẁant) ër: fërn, bërth ship (= bïrth born) vërve, përson, prefër ear: 1. usually = êer: clêar, hêar, wêary, êar, fêar, dêar 2.= ër: hëard, ëarly, dëarth, ëarth 3.= àr: heàrt, heàrth êer = êar (1): stêer, dêer, quêer, bêer, shêer absolute (= shêar shears) ïr = ër: gïrl, bïrth, stïr, fïr, dïrt, flïrt ŏr: ŏr, fŏrt, tŏrch, mŏrning, wŏrn - but, after w, usually ö: wörth, wörd, wörm, wörk, wörse (but not in wòrry) ür = ïr = ër: bürn, distürb, hürt, spürn, pürse or as in: pûre, allûre, jûry, AmE sûre or BrE: sůre, assůrance; in BrE, assůre sounds just like ashŏre.

But unstressed at the end of a word, r, sounded in AmE, silent in BrE, can be preceded by any vowel, and this vowel mostly, apart from in monosyllables, has the schwa sound: dóctor, véctor, fürther, bürsar, Qátar, lêmur, fêmur. Exceptions to schwa: quâsàr, púlsàr.

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing