How do YOU pronounce the English "R"? I am curious how both learners and native speakers pronounce this odd sound. To be clear: I don't want a cut-and-paste from wikipedia or a youtube of someone else. I've already looked, and my conclusion is that the R pronunciation is very, very inconsistent: at least 3 different methods in the US, from my youtube adventures... and only one is vaguely related to the Aussie R (or should I say, "aaa"). So how do *you* pronounce it? Description please! :)Thanks guys - I now imagine you all as pirates. :P Courtney, I used that 儿 sound to get a student on track with pronunciation (ie. stop her saying "L"), since Chinese was her second language already - it worked pretty well! 一一一, that's what vexed me about R... no real agreement on how to say it. But R is one of the clearest indicators of regional accents, at least. Denis, good point about resonance - I noted that also, and we Aussies often drop the resonance right down into the chest. And our initial 'R' is veeeery relaxed - for the ends of syllables, it virtually becomes a vowel extension. That said, I've had a lot of fun practicing the American R's. Totally different world. :) Thanks again guys, these are great answers!