Everything you have built so far travels through your mouth. If the sounds are wrong, a Malayali will understand you — but they will always hear a foreigner. An English speaker believes there is one R. Malayalam has three, made in three different places. Use the wrong one and you do not have an accent — you have a different word. SOUND ONE — ര, the flap The tongue tip comes up, touches lightly behind the upper teeth, and flicks away instantly. It does not stay. It does not curl. And you may already own it. Say "butter" fast and natural — that thing in the middle is not a T, it is a quick flap. That flap is ര. Say "water". Wadder. Same flap. Spanish speakers have it in the single R of pero (but) — not the rolled RR of perro. Italian has it in caro. Japanese speakers get ര right on the first try, because it sits almost exactly where their R in ramen does. Hindi speakers: this is your र, no adjustment. രാമൻ · പറയുക to say · കരയുക to cry · വര a line Try it now: say butter butter butter ten times fast, then without changing anything in your mouth say രാമൻ. SOUND TWO — റ, the retroflex Here the tongue does not flap forward. It curls backward, the tip rising and pulling back toward the hard palate. Linguists call it retroflex — retro, backward; flex, bending. English speakers own this one too: the American R in red, rock, berry is made with the tongue pulled back like this. The difficulty is not making the sound. The difficulty is using it ONLY where it belongs, and switching off your automatic English R everywhere else. കറി curry — and yes, the English word comes from this one. SOUND THREE completes the set, and the episode drills all three against each other. Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.