Take the 2-minute tour ×

For example in policy debates, in continuous reading or for example an interruptive briefing - there is a dot (.)

It was summer. A strange shade was moving. Before the turning of the street there was a red car.

Andrew saw himself in the mirror. It was dark in the room.

summe*RA*strange ?

ca*RA*ndrew ?

And if there is the case which regulates largeness of applicability of "connected R" and in which circumstances?

share|improve this question
"an summer"? typo for "in"?, Linking-R would not normally appear in between sentences since no matter how fast someone is reading/talking there is still a pause (however short it might be). –  msam Mar 17 at 11:53
You pronounce the "R". You do not add it to the next word. –  Sean Duggan Mar 17 at 12:26

2 Answers 2

up vote -1 down vote accepted

In a rhotic dialect of English (like General American English, GenAmE), the 'r' is always pronounced, but it is pronounced as part of the first word, not as the first sound of the starting word of the next sentence.

But you're probably thinking of a non-rhotic dialect, one that tends not to pronounce word final 'r's, like RP, the British English dialect likely to be taught. Non-rhotic dialects sometimes have linking-R's

As you point out, one might think that if the following word is in the following sentence one might still add in the linking-R.

It turns out that BrE does not do this, nor do any other varieties of English (there is too much 'space' between the two sentences.

So do not pronounce the R at the end of a sentence in BrE even if the following sentence starts with a vowel.


share|improve this answer
Special thanks for the precise link. "Words historically ending in /r/ may be pronounced with [r] when they are closely followed by another morpheme beginning with a vowel sound. "closely" means the following word must be in the same prosodic unit (that is, not separated by a pausa). Prosodic unit, often called an intonation unit or intonational phrase, is a segment of speech that occurs with a single prosodic contour (pitch and rhythm contour). The abbreviation IU. Phonological hierarchy –  Xsi Mar 18 at 14:10
1 Utterance (υ) 2 Prosodic declination unit (DU) / intonational phrase (I-phrase) (ι) 3 Prosodic intonation unit (IU) / phonological phrase (P-phrase) 4 Prosodic list unit (LU) 5 Clitic group 6 Phonological word (P-word, ω) 7 Foot (F, φ): "strong-weak" syllable sequences such as English ladder, button, eat it 8 Syllable (σ): e.g. cat (1), ladder (2) 9 Mora (μ) ("half-syllable") 10 Segment (phoneme): e.g. [k], [æ] and [t] in cat 11 Feature –  Xsi Mar 18 at 14:15
In BE, it's not a case of not pronouncing the letter r. The letter is just not pronounced in the very strong way that it is in AE. –  Tristan r Mar 18 at 17:08

The Wikipedia suggests that the /r/ is not prounounced here (unless, of course, the speaker always pronounces /r/).


share|improve this answer

Your Answer


