© Paul Smit 2006-2020
This is a common minimal pair problem for many learners from East Asia, including Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao and Thai speakers among others. You may have learned to pronounce the two sounds correctly in pairs where /l/ or /r/ are at the beginning of the word, but you may still find pairs like clime/crime, collect/correct and flute/fruit more difficult. This is because you need to move your vocal apparatus from making the /f/ in flute/fruit to making the /l/ or /r/ sound.
How do I make the /l/ and /r/ sounds?
Firstly, note that the letter r is often silent in British or Australian English when it appears at the end of a word or syllable if the next sound is a consonant. Let’s watch a video which explains how to make the /l/ and /r/ sounds in British English
This is a common minimal pair problem for many learners from East Asia, including Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao and Thai speakers among others. You may have learned to pronounce the two sounds correctly in pairs where /l/ or /r/ are at the beginning of the word, but you may still find pairs like clime/crime, collect/correct and flute/fruit more difficult. This is because you need to move your vocal apparatus from making the /f/ in flute/fruit to making the /l/ or /r/ sound.
How do I make the /l/ and /r/ sounds?
Firstly, note that the letter r is often silent in British or Australian English when it appears at the end of a word or syllable if the next sound is a consonant. Let’s watch a video which explains how to make the /l/ and /r/ sounds in British English
Exercise 1: Listen to the word pairs and repeat.
Exercise 1: Contrasting the sounds
- Listen to the word pairs, focusing on the two different sounds.
- Then repeat, again focusing on saying the different sounds for /l/ and /r/
- Remember that to make the /l/ sound, your tongue will touch the back of your upper teeth and gum, whereas to make the /r/ the tongue does not make contact.
| link | rink | |
| long | wrong | |
| load | road | |
| collect | correct | |
| climb | crime | |
| lip | rip | |
| flog | frog | |
| flute | fruit | |
| claw | craw |
© Paul Smit 2006-2020
Exercise 2: Watch the silent videos and identify the words
The purpose of this exercise is for you to notice the way the mouth, top teeth and tongue are used to make the /l/ and /r/ sounds. This will give you visual clues while listening, and teach you how to make the two sounds.
- With words with the /l/ sound, you should see the speaker’s tongue.
- With words with the /r/ sound, the speaker’s tongue will be behind the teeth and difficult to see.
- You can watch as many times as you want.
© Paul Smit 2006-2020
© Paul Smit 2006-2020
Exercise 3: Listening and distinguishing the sounds
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the word you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
© Paul Smit 2006-2020
Exercise 4: Listen to this tongue twister, then repeat. Try to repeat again, faster every time.
The right light is the red led light on the right.
Exercise 5: Listen to this tongue twister, then repeat (try two lines at a time first)
A frog climbs the fruit tree to find fresh fruit.
The frog eats the fruit’s fresh flesh.
It’s a crime to climb to steal fresh fruit
but you shouldn’t flog the frog for eating fresh fruit.
Frog climb crime for fresh fruit flesh?
How ridiculous!
© Paul Smit 2006-2020
Exercise 6: Listening and distinguishing the sounds
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the sentence you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
© Paul Smit 2006-2020