R facts for kids

The letter R in cursive writing

R is the eighteenth letter in the English alphabet. It is a consonant, which means it's a sound made by blocking air in your mouth, unlike vowels like A, E, I, O, U. The letter R is used in many words and has a unique sound that can change depending on where it is in a word or what other letters are around it.

The Story of the Letter R

The letter R has a long and interesting history, going back thousands of years. It started as a picture in ancient times and slowly changed into the letter we know today.

From Pictures to Letters

The very first version of R came from the Phoenicians, who lived around 1000 BC. They had a letter called "Resh," which meant "head." It looked a bit like a person's head with a neck.

Greek and Roman Changes

When the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, they changed "Resh" into their letter "Rho." The Greeks turned the "head" shape sideways and added a tail, making it look more like our modern P.

Later, the Romans borrowed the alphabet from the Greeks to create the Latin alphabet. They added a small diagonal line to the "Rho" to make it look like the R we use today. This helped to tell it apart from the letter P. This Roman R is the one that eventually came into the English alphabet.

How We Use and Say R

The letter R is very common in English words. It can sound different depending on where it is in a word.

Different R Sounds

In English, the R sound is often made by curling your tongue back in your mouth. This is called a "rhotic" R. For example, in words like "run," "red," or "rabbit," you can hear this strong R sound.

However, in some accents, especially in parts of England, the R sound at the end of a word or before another consonant might not be pronounced. For example, in the word "car," some people might not say the R sound very strongly.

R in Everyday Words

Many common words start with R, such as:

• Rainbow
• Rocket
• River
• Read
• Run

The letter R is also found in the middle or at the end of many words, like "tree," "star," or "bird." It's an important part of how we form and understand words.

R in Numbers and Science

The letter R is not just for words; it's also used in other areas like math and science.

R in Math

In mathematics, the letter R can stand for different things:

• R often represents the radius of a circle or a sphere. The radius is the distance from the center to the edge.
• It can also stand for "real numbers," which are all the numbers that can be found on a number line, including positive, negative, fractions, and decimals.

R in Science

In science, R can be used in different ways:

• In chemistry, R can be a placeholder for a part of a molecule that changes.
• In physics, R can stand for resistance in an electrical circuit.

Fun Facts About R

• The letter R is one of the most common consonants in the English language.
• It is sometimes called the "dog's letter" because its sound can be like a growl.
• In some old forms of writing, the letter R looked very different, sometimes even like a small, rounded shape.

Images for kids

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  The word prognatus as written on the Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (280 BC) reveals the full development of the Latin R by that time; the letter P at the same time still retains its archaic shape distinguishing it from Greek or Old Italic rho.

• 

  18th-century example of use of r rotunda in English blackletter typography

• 

  Letter R from the alphabet by Luca Pacioli, in De divina proportione (1509)

See also

In Spanish: R para niños