The letter -R-

This is probably the most important difference between BrE and AmE. British people only pronounce the letter R when it is followed by a vowel. American people pronounce this letter always.

sorry /sɒrɪ/

teacher /ti:tʃə/ /ti:tʃər/

LINKING R

In BrE a final -R is silent, because it is not followed by a vowel, so TEACHER is pronounced /ti:tʃə/. But if that word is followed by another word that begins with a vowel, then the R is followed by a vowel and so, it is pronounced:

He's the new teacher of maths now, the final -R in TEACHER is pronounced "teacherofmaths": /hi:z ðə nju: ti:tʃər əv mæθs/

This final R that joins one word with the next is called a "linking R".

INTRUSIVE R

In BrE, words ending in R sometimes pronounce it (linking R) and sometimes don't pronounce it. From a native's point of view, there are words that end in a vowel but when the next word begins with a vowel they use an / r / to join both words. Then, it is only natural that sometimes they use a "linking R" in the wrong place. We call that an "intrusive R", and it happens a lot in BrE.

A book about Africa and America many British people will pronounce this "africarandamerica"

VOWEL CHANGES

The sound / r / has usually changed the pronunciations of the previous vowel. This is the table of changes that explain the present pronunciation of many words:

	A	E	I	O	U	EE	EA	OO	OU	AI
without r
with r

EXAMPLES

	A	E	I	O	U	EE	EA	OO	OU	AI
without r	can	pen	bid	stop	cup	feel	mean	took / food	house	day
with r	car	person	bird	fork	purse	beer	bear / fear	door	hour	pair

In all these examples with R, AmE pronounces the R and BrE doesn't, but both of them present the same change in the vowel before the R. So this letter, silent or not, is marking a change in the previous vowel.