uk english sound of R?

Question

for those who speak received pronunciation (RP), please answer the following question.

in each case, is the "r" sound pronounced?

1...my fatheR is...
2...over theRe, a...
3...seven kilometRes away

how about
4...fouR apples
5...faR away

Is the word "is" beginning with a vowel sound?

Answer 1

In RP the answer is yes to all five but as migelito says above it is often not stressed very heavily. Kilometres is pronounced by most RP speakers as kill-OM-ih-turs (it should be pronounced kill-OH-me-ters).

As for "is" the pronunciation is ih-z. Often Spanish speakers of English pronounce it in a vowel way by saying ee-z.

I hope that's some help.

Answer 2

In careful RP, the R is replaced by a glottal stop.

However, you'd be likely to hear the R in unguarded speech from RP speakers in 1, 4 and 5; but never in 2 and 3.

Answer 3

The R is pronounced in each example but without stressing it.
When R appears at the end of a word it usually has very little stress on it but it should be there in your speech.

(Kilometres is pronounced 'kilometers')

Answer 4

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No.

The general rule is this: if a word ends in "r" (even if only phonetically), it's not pronounced unless the next word begins with a vowel. The same is true of "w". It's not pronounced in "law", but it is in "law and order".

So,

"father", silent.
"father is", pronounced.
"there", silent.
"there is", pronounced.
and so on.

It's not so strange; in French, this rule applies to most consonants at the end of words, e.g.,

"prêt" (ready), the "t" is silent.
"prêt à manger" (ready to eat), the "t" is pronounced.

Answer 5

1 my fatha ris...
2 ova thea, a
3 7 kilometaz away

Answer 6

1. not pronounced.
2. over th-air
3. not pronounced.

Answer 7

no it is not pronounced in anyone of them