How to pronounce the German "R"

For some reason, the German "R" sound seems to be difficult for many people learning German. This video will introduce you to basic phonetics in order to explain that... it's no big deal, really.
Music:
"Style Funk" and "How Swing"
by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com/
Creative Commons Attribution licence
Sound effects:
by InspectorJ and freesound.org
Creative Commons Attribution licence
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[@FlashheadX]

It depends on the region you grow up in. The most common pronounciation of R is actually [ʁ], the voiced uvular fricative. It's not really "rolled", but somewhere between your rolled German R and a "Kehllaut" (I think you did a video on those few years ago, like the "ch" in "acht")

[@rewboss]

Sure; must people with a uvular /r/ realize it as [ʁ], either fully realized or as an approximant [ʁ̞]. But I'm looking at what is normally taught to students of German and what is helpful as a way of explaining it. In particular, [ʁ] is confusingly close to the voiceless velar and uvular fricatives [x] and [χ]. But since one way of looking at it is that the uvular /r/ is realized as [ʀ] in free variation with [ʁ] and [ʁ̞], I thought it would be sensible to describe [ʀ] (as the speaker in the MRI appears to be demonstrating, so far as I can tell with after they ran an aggressive noise removal over it). And one can argue that a uvular fricative is essentially a slightly more chaotic uvular trill. I don't know far that argument would take you, but I'd say that it's close enough to maintain the line that /r/ can be realized as [ʀ ~ ʁ].

[@wingedhussar1117]

@@rewboss 4:20 That was actually a voiced uvular fricative and not a trill. Some people say that uvular trills and uvular fricatives are basically the same thing, but in fact the two consonant sound very different for trained ears.

[@rewboss]

@@wingedhussar1117 It sounded more like a tap to me. The problem is that the sound quality is atrocious in the video: the MRI scanner makes a lot of noise, which they had to filter out using a software noise removal tool, and that's what degraded the sound so much.

[@mizapf]

People from the Ruhrgebiet take it to the extreme and pronounce the r almost like ch, like "Gebuchtstag" (Geburtstag) or "Chooo-bert!" ("Rooo-bert!)

[@jamesalles139]

@@rewboss yes, no high-end, or sibilance

[@xaverlustig3581]

For all Americans watching this: If anyone complains about your German pronunciation, just tell them you come from the Erzgebirge (the mountain chain south west of Dresden on the Czech border), because their dialect uniquely features an "American" sounding R. You can make your claim even more credible by knowing about the local christmas traditions.

[@ospero7681]

Alternatively, the Siegerland will do as well. (If Wikipedia is to be believed, their "r" is even closer to the American than in Erzgebirgisch.)

[@jamesalles139]

Thank you for the open source intelligence!

[@jacksonbiscuit]

I used to live in Upper Lusatia, where older people had a proper West Country R just like Rewboss! kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4qyq5tohtOYotE

[@1LPMx1]

I once had a classmate from Bad Tölz and his r, at least to me, sounded just like the american pronunciation.

[@Tragantar1310]

@@ospero7681 can confirm, my grandpa is from there and always gets mistaken for an american

[@grawatto]

I'm a spy and I find this video only partially helpful, yet entertaining.

[@letoubib21]

Okay, spy Grawatto, to the garrotte! Your wrong "R" blew you *. . . ;-)*

[@scij03]

One big exception to pronouncing the R as a vowel. If you are the singer of Rammstein, you always want to roll the R as much as possible.

[@MaximusLongus]

Nun liebe Kinderrr gebt fein Acht …

[@uncinarynin]

For instructions on how to use the rolling tonguetip R as a vowel, listen to any song by Zarah Leander.

[@xaverlustig3581]

@@uncinarynin Or Nina Hagen kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3fRfYmcoMuLd5Y

[@uncinarynin]

@@xaverlustig3581 Rrrr!

[@qiziqkop_]

Leiht eueah Ohrrr einerrr Legende

[@minski76]

"Unless you are a spy!" And even then you can apparently get away with the heaviest possible British accent by claiming to be born and raised at the foot of Piz Palü... As long as you don't order three beers. *nerd mode off*

[@rewboss]

If you want nerd... No, it wasn't actually Hicox's fingers that gave the game away -- that was deliberate misdirection by Tarantino. It really was his accent, which is what brought Hellstrom over to his table in the first place. You can see that Hellstrom doesn't buy Hicox's story for one moment, and gets him drunk to keep him talking. The clincher is in fact Hicox's failure to identify an actress who was a household name in Nazi Germany but unknown anywhere else. The other characters speculate that it was because he held up the wrong fingers, but they are quite clearly wrong.

[@gulli72]

Suffice it to say that in the real world nobody will point a Walther at anyone's testicles over this.

[@Thiesi]

@@rewboss You never stop to amaze me with your profound knowledge, be it of the Berlin subway system or a Quentin Tarantino movie with Til Schweiger in it.

[@MrBlacksingh]

I was thinking of the same scene from Inglorious Bastards.

[@ssazerac]

Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don't mind if I go out speaking the King's.

[@sinom]

In a dialect in my region "hören" is basically pronounced as "höan", so depending on where exactly you are and who you're talking to the vowel r is a lot more used than the normal r

[@letoubib21]

That's in nearly every German accent *. . .*

[@SD_Alias]

And the end syllable "er" is often pronounced with a short a. Like in northern Germany "Ey Alla!" instead of " Hej Alter!"

[@JoniWan77]

@@SD_Alias It's most often actually not a real "a", but something between an "a" and a schwa, also called a-schwa or r-schwa and is pretty much a vocalization/vowelization of the German "r".

Ruhrpott?

[@unvergebeneid]

3:31 Saying "In German, the r can sometimes be a vowel" in a non-rhotic dialect of English sounds a bit ironic ;)

[@Pruegelknappen]

Sehr nett, die ganzen Begriffe noch mal auf deutsch in die Untertitel zu schreiben. Danke dafür.

[@gordonross4542]

I am a phonetics teacher in Germany and this is a brilliant video, which I am very grateful for and which I acutally use in university classes but, as far as I know, the most commonly-used High German 'r' sound is ʁ​ (not R) which is a voiced uvular fricative (stimmhafter uvularer Frikativ) but maybe they use the uvular trill where you live?

[@isaacbobjork7053]

1:59 baa baa banküberfall!

[@AVKnecht]

Das Böse ist immer und überall!

[@zam1am]

baa baa ba ba ba - babbelgamm (Gershon Kingsley 1922-2019) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpmQeqZmd690jMU

[@Caledoriv]

How often did you practice the different "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sounds? It was quite hard for me despite being a German antive speaker.

[@HiltownJoe]

It vastly differs in difficulty depending on you own dialect. Some dialects have all the Rs already there. Also having a look at the phonetic alphabet and playing around with the different sounds helps to loosen your tongue. Once the "Groschen is gefallen" it is suddenly really easy.

[@Freinersen]

One of your best videos. Very informative.

[@dynaflow666]

Da kann ich nur zustimmen, sehr gut gemacht und erläutert! Danke.

[@Alexander_01]

The rolling "tongue" r is not only used in southern Germany. For example in eastern Hessian dialect this is also the case. Mostly older people are rolling the r, just because they still speak this dialect. So this has nothing to do with the "Bühnendeutsch" in this case.

[@summerday1983]

I couldn't produce the alveolar trill until I was about 9 or 10 years old. And I'm from Austria. It felt a little bit disabled, actually.

[@RAMAFASTENAMONATO]

A German linguist named Theodor Siebs introduced the first standard pronunciation in 1898. It was called _die deutsche Bühnenaussprache_ or _Bühnendeutsch_ or stage pronunciation. This kind of German pronunciation is unique. Every speech sound had to be pronounced clearly, with /p t k/ in initial position were followed by a clear /h/. An alveolar trill 'r' was the standard pronunciation, which means all r's had to be pronounced just like a Spanish 'r'. There was no vocalized /r/ that is heard like /ah/. There were no syllabic consonants for the pronunciation of -en and -el. Thus, such words as _reich_ , _über_ , _Urlaub_ , _arbeiten_ , _Wappen_ , _backen_ , _Apfel_ and Katze were just pronounced [raɪç], ['yːbər], [ˈuːrlaʊp], [ˈarbaɪtən], [ˈvapən], [ˈbakən], [ˈapfəl] and [ˈkhatsə] respectively. All people in German-speaking countries understood this stage pronunciation. Unfortunately, this artificial pronunciation was used formally in Germany until 1950s because the second type of standard pronunciation appeared: _Deutsche Hochsprache_ . Today, its name has been changed to _Deutsche Aussprache_ . The second type of German pronunciation is more difficult to many learners of German since a uvular 'r' is the standard pronunciation and it becomes a vocalized 'r' [ɐ] when the letter 'r' is at the end of words and before consonants. This means that 'r' is pronounced like /ah/ at the end of words and before consonants, but it is pronounced just like a French 'r' when it appears in other positions. The endings -en and -el become a syllabic-n and a syllabic-l respectively. Thus, _reich_ , _über_ , _Urlaub_ , _arbeiten_ , _Wappen_ , _backen_ , _Apfel_ and Katze should be pronounced [ʀaɪç], ['yːbɐ], [ˈuːɐlaʊp], [ˈaʀbaɪtn̩], [ˈvapm̩], [ˈbakŋ̩], [ˈapfl̩] and [ˈkʰatsə] respectively.

[@Omnigrotesque]

I love those deep dives into language science. It's a lot of fun for me. Unfortunately, most of my friends become very quickly tired of the topic. :(

[@Chloe-qd5vx]

Me too😆

[@part9952]

In Austria in many regions and especially old people use an alveolar trill / tap :)

[@AvrahamYairStern]

I study linguistics and I'm surprized at your knowledge on phonology!

[@ursulazimmer1287]

That is so interesting, I had no idea that so many r's were spoken in German! I feel like the alveolar and uvular families are qualitatively very different, but once you are comfortable producing one sound in the family, you can much more easily learn to say the others of the same family. Coming from a language which uses the alveolar trill, I found it very difficult to learn to say the uvular r's that the Germans around me were saying. But once I learned to pronounce one of them - which in my case was probably the uvular trill, I was also able to adjust the pronunciation to match whatever I was hearing.

[@Weddei]

This guy is amazing!! I wish i had him as a professor at school.

[@kanalisationerstellen]

You are a better German Teacher than my German teacher in my German school, when they teached us vowels... and i got confused in primary schools for reasons like that! Tor would be only one vowel... but isnt....

[@user-jj2up5sg8i]

The best video explaining "R"" sound!

[@KaterMUC]

The rolling R is not only used in "Bühnendeutsch, but almost always when singing.

[@raythevagabond3724]

Again what learnd ;) Thank you

[@haramanggapuja]

Love to see you do one of these on Danish phonology. Especially their pronunciation of the letters "r" and "v". ;-)

[@Blazeit-tm5vq]

I was looking for a video like this cause I wanted to know how people from other countries think our R is pronounced. This video explaines it to the point.

[@OLBarbok]

Don't worry about speaking perfect, we can barely understand each other's dialects, it doesn't matter if you have an accent.

[@robertnett9793]

That's just because most Germans don't speak / understand proper Bavarian :D (just kidding).

[@diesesphil]

I am a GErman speaking a Niederrhienischen Dialect that is almost high german, and have no Problem at all understanding German Dialects. like for real. The biggest problem is Swiss but even that isnt too hard

[@robertnett9793]

@Gernot Schrader Interesting take. Though, I would argue, that the Allemani are a different tribe than the Bajuwars and - to my knowledge have different languages. There IS an overlap between the more eastern allemanic tribes and western bajuwaric tribes though. In the Swabic and Allgäuer parts you have this influences from both sides But there are destinctions and I believe people from the eastern Bavarian parts, like the Oberpfalz or Nieder- or Oberbayern might take offense to that statement :D

[@kasetoast8354]

@@robertnett9793 "(just kidding)." That was pretty close to an escalation ;)

[@robertnett9793]

@@kasetoast8354 Well. I like to play with fire :D

[@reinhard8053]

Where I went to school (Austria) there is a valley where they speak a very rolling R. One student from there drove our French teacher nearly insane.

[@eisikater1584]

I really should repeat my linguistics classes, or at least have a look into the textbook again, which I fortunately still own. Thank you, Andrew, for giving me this brilliant idea. (And don't ask me how I struggled with the French R, Bavarian that I am.)

[@emperoruniversalis9773]

Its even interesting for a native german to watch your videos :) greetings from Anhalt😉

[@eltfell]

In an area called "Lippe" - east of Eastern Westfalia - the "R" is pronounced as "A". Schirm = Schiam.

[@gretahaase5509]

I grew up in Lippe and have a horse called 'Dirk'. I had to repeat his name several times while talking to other people and really had to remind myself of the high German pronounciation, because if I don't think about it, I call him 'Diak' and people were wondering, what his actual name is - 'Dirrrrrk' oder 'Diaaak'. Language is a wonderful thing :D

[@andypre1667]

Ruhrdeutsch has the same feature. Aus Birke wird Biake mit überspitztem I.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

and here it's more like "schörm"

[@jonkess2768]

@@andypre1667 I pronounce Birke either Biake or Böake either way i am turning that R into a vowel.

[@RayyMusik]

Referring to the video, Westphalians use to say Uaweak, i.e. (also) the 2nd R is pronounced like A (while the first may be a schwa).

[@diefibo6905]

In reality I think I pronounce EVERY R that’s at the end of a syllable as a vowel. In your example Uhrwerk I would say „U[e]-we[a]k“. So there are even two different vowel sounds the R can make: After A, E, O it is a short „a“: Art -> „A-a-t“, Pferd -> „Pfe-a-rd“, Ort -> „O-a-t“; and after I and U it is like a short E-sound: Vier -> „vi[e]“, Kur -> „Ku-e“. 😄 At least that is the case in my region of Germany/NRW.

[@botinhas82]

As a Portuguese living in Germany for 10 years I always found tremendously difficult to pronounce the "ch" like in "auch", "acht" or "Michael". On the other end no German (Michael or not) can ever correctly pronounce my name "João" so I call it even.

[@rewboss]

I used to have Portuguese neighbours with that name. Yep, there are a couple of things there that would cause Germans problems. I'm guessing the nasal vowel is the biggest.

[@melinalack6224]

How do you pronounce your name? I've seen it in books, but I've never heard the name spoken!

[@botinhas82]

@@melinalack6224 First syllabe is easy "Jo" where the "o" sounds like the English "oo", then the "ão" is an "u" like in "sun" followed by the nasal "oom" like in "zoom": Joo u-oom. Same sound applies to all Portuguese words with "ão" like "pão" (bread), "cão" (dog), "mão" (hand) or "chão" (floor).

[@melinalack6224]

@@botinhas82 thank you very much for replying! I tried pronouncing it the way you explained. That's cool!

[@jonkess2768]

@@melinalack6224 But the "ch" in "Acht"/"auch" and "Michael" are different sounds arent they? I am a native speaker and i pronounce them differently.

[@gisellaroma8151]

This video helped me a lot!!! Dankee

[@beveragebrit]

Vielen Dank mein Herr, du has helped mich lernst Deutsch

[@quirkygreece]

I’m amazed that I found that so interesting and enjoyable wow!

[@bigscarysteve]

What can I say but "excellent"!

[@aaron2709]

You could say "rexcellent"!

[@sighisoaraa]

I'm surprised you didn't compare R as a vowel to the RP pronunciation.

[@TheLookOf]

In The Hague the r is a vowel too, when at the end of any word. Lekker is lekkah, bier is bieah, etc etc.

[@stefaniel.]

Ok, jetzt rrrrrrrrrrrrollt es ganz schön in meinem Kopf

[@hei7586]

There's no shame in striving for perfection in your pronunciation. It's easto understand and people will appreciate it!

[@aaron2709]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Scooby-Doo. As a ghost-hunting cartoon dog, he has a unique American dialect of pronouncing every word with an R.

[@sashaZ523]

love the medical imaging shoutout

[@Toxicity1987]

Listen to a lot of Rammstein and then start to sing alongside.

[@indestructiblemadness8531]

Im always fascinated how we pronounce the same latter differently in different situations. Here with Uhr and Uhren. Never realized this. Last year it was "n" in for example "Wirsing" vs "Nürnberg". First one the tongue is back, the letter one is at the front.

[@ThePositiev3x]

You took a bit complicated topic and turned into much more complicated topic with those scientific words. Thank you.

[@martin.brandt]

As a German Northerner, I roll the "R" in the back. But I always wondered why I never was able to do the "R" of Bavarian dialect. You are the first to tell me that it is done with the tongue. Well, I still simply can't do it, but now I know what to look for!

[@ashrasmun1]

Fantastic video, thanks a lot! Now I can do weird R sounds alone at home 😅

[@HotelPapa100]

As a kid for the longest time I thought the German brewery Riegeler was called Riegela, because of their ads on radio.

[@kiwi_kirsch]

you are amazing!!! instant follow. are you sure you're from england?? i have NEVER heard someone not german say EVERY sound of "uhrwerk" in SUCH a doubtlessly german way 0_0

[@kiwi_kirsch]

WOW wow. WOW!!! in your examples given amidst english flow of speaking, i can only seldomly hear your english origin, but the more stress you put into presenting pronounciation, the more i am amazed 0_0 can you even say eichhörnchen???! [i cannot say squirrel, i say skwwwrrrll]

[@ratatosk8935]

As a Mecklenbourgian: Don't use "-er" at the end of a german noun. Just say "-äh". Normally other Germans don't recognize, that we're sloppy with our endings... Nobody ever has called my dialect a dialect...

[@wingedhussar1117]

Hallo rewboss, ich hätte einen Themenvorschlag für ein linguistisches Video... Mach doch mal ein Video über die deutsche Grundwortstellung... Also ich meine es gibt SVO-Sprachen wie Englisch, SOV-Sprachen wie Japanisch, VSO-Sprachen wie klassisches Arabisch etc. Beim Deutschen ist es ja so, dass man auf den ersten Blick denkt, es sei eine SVO-Sprache, und dass man bei der genaueren Analyse aber bei SOV mit Verbzweitstellung im Hauptsatz und VSO in Entscheidungsfragen landet.

[@carrstone01]

I roll my Rs depending on the height of the heels I'm wearing. BTW, 'Uhrwerk' said aloud has no 'r' in it, the sound you hear is represented by the written 'hr'.

[@philippkemptner4604]

True story, my girlfriend is from northern Germany and I'm from Austria, near the Bavarian border. We both can't do the r the way the other does.

[@InTeCredo]

That reminds me of the tense dialogue between Major Hellstrom, Corporal Wilhelm Wicki, Lt. Archie Hicox, and Bridget von Hammersmark in the basement bar. Major Hellstrom was so hell-bent on figuring out the specific areas in Germany based on accents. One biggest mistake Lt. Archie Hicox was gesturing wrong fingers...

[@rewboss]

As I mentioned to somebody else -- no, that was deliberate misdirection by Tarantino, and the characters who later speculated that's what blew his cover were simply wrong. Hicox's accent was a dead giveaway right from the start, which is why Hellstrom joined their table. Hellstrom's tactic was then simply to get Hicox drunk to keep him talking. That they play "Who Am I?" is significant: Hellstrom engineers things so that he gives Hicox his character, who was a household name in Nazi Germany. Hicox's failure to guess was a very clear sign that he hadn't spent any time in Germany for several years.

[@AviationVid]

I've read the script and just looked it up. Of course the accent triggert the mistrust but the crux is that Bridget von Hammersmark overrates her persuasivness. She thinks that Hellström believes her, when she said that Hicox is from a village at the Piz Palü. So she agrees to play "Who Am I?" even when Hicox is saying to Hellström that he disturbs the group of old friends. Just because of that the conversation ist going on. During the following talk the mistrust grows because of several inconsistencies and erupts in the order with the wrong gesture. At this moment Hellström is totaly aware of the situation.

[@AviationVid]

I am sorry for my bad english and I hope nevertheless it is possible to understand

[@hermannschaefer4777]

If you use a rolling r or a uvular trill ⟨ʀ⟩ or voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] at the end of a word (like Tor, Uhr or war (was)) instead of a Schwa (ə), you just sound a bit.. well.. strange, but it still sounds German, kinda. It just sounds a bit.. too German. Like when Brits try to imitate ze GeRRRRRRman Language.. But nevertheless, it's still better than the often heard american-r, the alveolar approximant [ɹ]... If unsure how to sound a r at the end of a word, use the English "better", which is also more of an a-sound (bett-ah), so a Tor=To-ah, Uhr=Uh-ah is fine.

[@mod100]

Quite interesting even for a native German speaker. Greetings from Neu-Isenburg!

[@Ogaitnas900]

I really want to get the uvular one right, we don't have it at all in spanish so it's like using an austin powers mating call to speak

[@Atlantjan]

Unless of course you are in France and try to speak with a foreign accent, then a good chunk might either actually not understand you or refuse to listen. 😅

[@katoyukimaru]

hilariously ironic considering how tough it is to understand any other language spoken in a French accent, and this is before you add prejudice to the equation

[@rollstuhlmeister]

I don't think I can do either trilled German r. I always try the uvular, but I think when I say it it just sounds like a voiced velar fricative

[@rewboss]

...which is a very common pronunciation.

[@andrealukacs7801]

I love that he doesn't put pressure on the German language learners saying they shouldn"t overthink pronunciaton just need to be understandable while giving useful tips and also serious scientific facts about the sounds.

[@CrippleX89]

I live so darned close to the German border and I go shopping there weekly, I've had German classmates and friends yet still the freaking vowel R trips me out. I usually just use my Dutch (voiced alveolar trill) R instead and it's never caused any confusion.

I suspect so close to the border their dialect might be close to dutch that they understand.

[@moenchii]

Actually made me realize that we almost only use that vowel R in our dialect here...

[@spirwes64]

Von Dir kann aber echt jeder noch was lernen! :-)

[@Hanmacx]

From my region, the ore mountains in Saxony, we roll the R like a Barrel xD

[@noahherbriklopez8143]

Amazing

[@hypatian9093]

Another video telling us about something unexpectedly interesting :)

[@Nikioko]

3:20: unvoiced uvular fricatite? Only in the Rhineland, where you buy "Kachten fürs Konzecht".

[@fashionkiller11]

RRRRRRRRammstein, ein Mensch bRRRRRRRRennt.

[@Galenus1234]

I am a speaker of (Southern) Austrian German, so... 1. I don't use the alveolar trill 'r' at all and I don't know any native speaker here who does that. In fact, I am not even able to make that sound. 2. As for the uvular r... Take a sip of water and gargle. That's the sound you are searching for. Try to make that sound with ever decreasing amounts of water. 3. I never thought of the 'vowel r' as an 'r' at all. To me it's rather an 'a' albeit a murmurous one. There's an 'r' in writing but in the pronounciation there is rather a vague 'a'. Non-rhotic varieties of English went a few steps further and turned -er into a clear -ah. 4. Don't spend to much time practicing your r's. Just use your familiar English one and you'll be understood.

[@Nova-Franconia]

Well, here in Franconia (Northern Bavaria), the vast majority of people still use the alveolar trill r‘s, both in dialect and when speaking standard German. I also usually pronounce it after every vowel that isn’t an /e/. So: Arbeit; Irland; Dorf; Burg; Lärm; Körper; Fürchten;… But there are also some exceptions like: Berg; Herz; Schmerz; Herr;…

[@timseguine2]

Actually in my experience, if you are American and don't speak using the American R, people in Germany tend to be disappointed.

[@matthewgraygublerswife9224]

why 😭💀

[@stef987]

To this day I always was under the impression that the rolling of the r with the tip of the tongue was a standard practice in northern German dialects/accents or Plattdeutsch - and also done by people I definitely wouldn't call "posh"😅 (my grandma does it, as well as her family and you can hear actors in Northern German tv shows talk like this. Although it usually doesn't sound "properly" rolled, but more like a short "hit"🤔).

[@doesntmatter2017]

I'm wondering about the second line of IPA transcription at 2:30 I assume it referrs to the German pronunciation so why is there a [​ɔ] instead of [oːˈ]?

[@Johannludwigamadeus]

Highly interesting! _ What might also be interesting: the "g" at the end of a syllabe or of a word. "wenig" - some people say "wenik", others "wenich". Same with e.g. "Weg". etc.

[@MaskedBishop]

In 6th grade, German class, NRW, my teacher spoke about "Kriech" several times and I never knew what she meant, until one day she read the word "Krieg" out loud. 😅

[@SD_Alias]

@@MaskedBishop And some speak the "Ch" like in China or Chemie like Kina or Kemie. I think i heard that sometimes from Saarland people

[@IIIOOOUS]

I don`t think it is the uvula that vibrates it is a bit more in the front.

[@TheMKEWERBY]

Suffice it to say, Andrew, that the English sound most nearly equivalent to a German R sound would be that used by Scottish and northern English speakers. Right?

[@eisbombenterror]

Yes, in some Southern German dialects it is pretty close to it.

[@arthurjohnson9982]

Traditional Northumbria dialects use [ʁ] as the realisation of /r/.

[@taylolz]

I figured the difference between the [ə] ending in "eine" and the [ɐ] ending in "einer" would be an important distinction, at least if you're going for the standard pronunciation.

[@rewboss]

It's not one most people would clearly hear. The context would be a lot more helpful in correctly decoding that.

[@mizapf]

@@rewboss I guess we Germans hear that distinction between [ˈaɪ̯nɐ] and [ˈaɪ̯nə] very clearly, since it indicates an important grammatical topic (gender). Or, without IPA: Even when spoken very quickly, we'd know with high confidence whether "einer" or "eine" has been said. It may be difficult for people learning German, of course, but also a good advice to practice it.

[@rewboss]

@@mizapf I think it's more likely that you'd deduce the case and gender from context rather than pronunciation. After all, you never get confused between "der" as nominative masculine singular, dative feminine singular, genitive feminine singular or genitive plural.

[@cerberaodollam]

Thanks for this vid, it helps my accent insecurity :D

[@rorih]

Speaking an perfect R might help that german people won't answer you in English after you asked in German.

[@PHOTOM42]

Exactly. I spent 3 months in Germany always speaking in German and 90% of Germans answered me in English.

[@gerhardrobertbieber4129]

The pronouncing of r is different in Germany, every Region every dialect every Accent are different in pronouncation. In Frankiona you hear an rolling R Sound.

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

Can we have this video for the letter ö please? ;)

[@vertexrikers]

Fork! I was just sweeping my hand left when the glas shattered. Gave me quite the scare, searching my desk for something broken! O_o Damn those studio monitors... that stereo image was just too real. lel =D

[@spring_in_paris]

Till Lindemann ist, meiner bescheidenen Meinung Ach, ein interessantes Beispiel, wie in den 1920ziger Jahren gesungen wurde und der auf der Bühne gesprochen wurde. Ganz nach Ernst Busch.

[@DiggerWhoops]

That's what I try to tell my friends who say I'm going to be laughed at or not understood when I travel to Berlin (fingers crossed). My German will be far from perfect, but I think it''ll be understood. Meanwhile....I'm still working on the sounds and vocabulary.

[@pbworld7858]

Concerning the final r pronounced as a schwa, I think I hear it as an 'ah' sound, eg wieder -> wiedah. Maybe this depends on the region and the person. I used to watch German with Jenny and she pronounces it this way.

[@nicholashaniotis3508]

I found I can more easily perform the roll at the back of the mouth if I lower my pitch. So basically my German voice is lower than my English voice - at least, that's how i'm getting by (and enjoying it too!)

[@felixro1006]

Even I as a German am not able to pronounce the rolling R. Sometimes it works depending on how much fluid is in the back of my mouth. In the front I'm just not able to roll it. The American R is not a problem at all. So if I try to pronounce the R and it's not like - er in the end (so that the R becomes a vovel) my R sounds a bit like the CH sound from the rear of your mouth. In Germany it's not a problem at all, but when I try to teach German to foreigners they are always confused about the pronunciation of the R and try my broken version.

[@quagapp]

Re this, from NZ. My grandson's father is from Germany. When I tried to say a word I'd seen in a book, he couldn't understand. I agree with the fellow who says or said: 'It depends where you grow up...' And thinking of it, my accent in NZ is very different from many of the English even though both my parents were English....One from London, the other from the Midlands. Frequently some people from parts of England may as well be speaking German, almost. (More so as I get older as those all important high frequencies disappear of weaken). But the 'r', I am sure (A as I type this I wonder if I am fooling myself) French is easier to pronounce (I don't mean speak fluently and somehow...easier?). But I like to look at a poet's work, say Trakl, or Rilke or whoever (even the formidable Celan who invented words even in German) and imagine I can pronounce them. I can see what happens. Small children have some way of doing this, it is important for their survival to imitate the sounds of parents. So we form habits, later we add those of our friends. All this before you are over 20 preferably and much easier the younger one is....but older people can learn languages. But in any case, the 'r', speaking to a friend who learnt German....and hearing words spoken, I really struggled. I've seen those phonetic diagrams and the symbols. But clearly there are thousands of them. We use the main ones and with luck the main message of what one says will come through even if the 'r' is hard. And we have all made fun of the poor Chinese not being able to say the English 'r'...Of course, as there is difference, in the language, the sound, and they, we, are all habituated, using our words thousands and thousands of times.

[@3bydacreekside]

5:33 Ah ha! I heard it

[@schoenwettersl]

5:20 That is not correct I would say. The rolled R was actually very common in German lands and has died out over the last two centuries. In the 18th century you could find the R being rolled pretty much all over the place and as far as I know, middle high german also used rolled Rs.

[@schoenwettersl]

Also, fun fact: I'm from Bavarian-Swabia. Over here and also in eastern parts of Württemberg (Ulm for instance), the r is pronounced separately when it comes to certain words. The word "gern", for instance, would be pronounced as two syllables. Same goes for Tür, Turm, Stern, and so forth. I think in the Württemberg parts of Eastern Swabian the R isn't rolled but as for Bavarian Swabia, it even gets rolled! It's very interesting tbh and I think it's worth mentioning. I think in a lot of language courses they should point it out or teach it that way, if students take courses in the said regions. It's dying out and it's really sad.

[@BigBenGermany1983]

Sorry FC... =)

[@tianaroma3012]

Unless you are a spy or...Ästhet ? ;)

[@peterweiss123]

the most important letter for anglo-speakers to learn, not only german, but languages in general. Very important especially for americans.

[@Cptn080]

Well and I'm from a region in Germany where people manage it to put two 'r'-sounds in the word 'Banane'.

[@mathiaslist6705]

6:49 pretty good --- actually native quality but nevertheless I'd say most people pronounce hören as one syllable ... so again with turned up a like höan or better hööan as the ö has to be long

[@PP-jx7lo]

Is that acceptable to pronounce /r/ like Spanish or Thai R?

[@theiaraine]

is it weird if I use both in the same sentence or verse? (2nd language)

[@laprankster3264]

3:11 On that topic, do any languages besides English actually use any sort of labial/labialized articulations to their “r” sounds?

[@pawel198812]

Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, many Northern Indian languages, some varieties of Sicilian, some varieties of Spanish (especially in Puerto Rico)... can't think of any more.

[@uncinarynin]

Und als nächstes die verschiedenen "ch", oder hatten wir die schon? Für viele ausländer ein großes problem. (Französischer akzent einfach gemacht: sprich sch statt ch und lasse ansonsten das h weg)

[@mizapf]

Ist im Prinzip dasselbe wie im Griechischen mit dem Chi, nur dass sich die Aussprache von ch im Deutschen nach dem vorangehenden Vokal richtet und nicht nach dem folgenden.

[@uncinarynin]

@@mizapf Oder auch nach dem nachfolgenden, wobei sich das regional unterscheidet (China/Kina).

[@NamaeAidiaNai]

Can't do either trill, epic