R and L in English: how to make each one clearly

What each sound is

For l, put your tongue tip firmly on the ridge behind your top front teeth — the small bump you can feel with your tongue. Keep it there and use your voice. The sound comes out around the sides of your tongue. You can hold it for as long as you have breath.

For r, your tongue must not touch anything. There are two ways to do it, and both are correct. You can curl the tip up and back, or you can keep the tip down and bunch the middle of your tongue up. Either way, there is a gap everywhere. Your lips also round a little, as if you were starting to say "oo".

So the test is simple. Touch, and you have made an l. No touch, and you have made an r.

Why learners mix them up

Many languages use one sound in the place where English uses two. If your language does that, your ear was trained to treat r and l as the same thing, so you can produce the difference long before you can hear it. That is normal, and it means you should trust a recording more than your own ear at the start.

A second common habit is the tap or the trill. In many languages, r is made by tapping or vibrating the tongue tip against the ridge. English does not do that. A tapped r sounds like a d or a very quick l to an English listener.

A third habit is the throat r. Some languages make r at the back of the mouth. English r is made in the middle or front, and the throat version sounds like a completely different consonant.

How to make the English r

Start silently. Open your mouth and slowly curl your tongue tip up and back, toward the roof of your mouth, without letting it touch. Stop just before contact. Hold it there.

Now add your voice while your tongue stays still. The sound you get is the English r. It should feel dull and dark, and it should be possible to hold it for several seconds.

If the tongue keeps touching, try the other method. Leave the tip down behind your bottom teeth and instead lift and squeeze the middle of your tongue upward. Many English speakers make r this way, and for learners who trill it, it often works better because the tip is out of action.

Round your lips slightly. Then practice going straight from r into a vowel: ra, re, ri, ro, ru. The tongue should move once, smoothly, with no tap and no vibration.

Words to practice

Practice each sound alone before you mix them. For l: love, look, light, long, little. Feel the tongue press the ridge every time.

For r: red, run, read, right, rain. Check that nothing touches.

Now the pairs, said slowly, one after the other: light and right, love and rub, lead and read, collect and correct, glass and grass.

Then the hard part — words that use both, so your tongue has to change position inside one word: really, world, library, girl, problem, parallel. Say "really" in slow motion: r with no contact, then the vowel, then l with firm contact.

Also practice l at the end of words: full, all, feel. This l is darker, and the back of the tongue rises as well. Do not drop it or turn it into a vowel.

Then practice r after another consonant, which is the hardest position of all: bring, tree, from, green, price. Say the first consonant, then move straight into the r without letting the tongue touch anything on the way.

What to listen for

Listen for a tap. If your r is very short and sharp, you tapped. An English r is smooth and can be stretched.

Listen for length in the l. If your l is very short, your tongue may be leaving the ridge too early.

Record "light" and "right", then play them back the next day, when you have forgotten which is which. If you cannot tell them apart, keep practicing the tongue positions rather than the words.

A mirror helps for r, because you can see the lips round. And this is a good use for scoring: TonePerfect gives each sound in your recording its own score, so you can see whether r, l, or both are pulling your words down, instead of guessing.

Questions