Help with the rl sound?

Hi, I've been wondering how to make the rl sound as in 'girl' or 'curl'. I can't seem to be able to say it and I've been avoiding words with those sounds. When I try to say these words, I always exaggerate the ir and say 'uuurrr' and I can't say the l part. Help!

Welcome to the forum, an idiot. :hi:

If you are following the standard BrE model of pronunciation, there is no real problem, because there is no /r/ sound in the word.The vowel in 'curl', /ɜ:/ is very similar in quality to a lengthed /ə/, the vowel in 'the'.

an idiot said:

Hi, I've been wondering how to make the rl sound as in 'girl' or 'curl'. I can't seem to be able to say it and I've been avoiding words with those sounds. When I try to say these words, I always exaggerate the ir and say 'uuurrr' and I can't say the l part. Help!

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Only Americans and devotees of their dialect, and maybe some obscure hidden villages in Britain and Ireland say an /r/ here. You will be understood everywhere without pronouncing the /r/ (assuming that you are understandable generally!)
In AusE, it's more like /gɜ:əl/

I have troubles with pronouncing letter L - sometimes I drop it.
What do you think of my pronunciation of girls?
Girls.wmv - YouTube

NOT A TEACHER

Your pronunciation is perfectly understandable.

bagzi94 said:

I have troubles with pronouncing letter L - sometimes I drop it.
What do you think of my pronunciation of girls?
Girls.wmv - YouTube

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I had to listen to it four times before I understood it. However, this was because of unnatural stress and intonation. Once I had understood it, the pronunciation of the 'girls' was not a problem.

rl = uh-r + uh-l

raindoctor said:

rl = uh-r + uh-l

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That is not what bagzzi said. It is also not what any any speaker of standard British or American dialects says.

5jj said:

That is not what bagzzi said. It is also not what any any speaker of standard British or American dialects says.

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In American lects, that's how it is dealt with, not as a consonant cluster. This was discussed in DG Davies "American spoken english in Real life: fast natural, urgent survival foreign accent begone!"

So how many syllables does Davies say there are in the word 'girl'?