For most American dialects, the sounds are nearly identical, but not quite: at the beginning of a syllable, the "r" is an approximant (a type of consonant that

For most American dialects, the sounds are nearly identical, but not quite: at the beginning of a syllable, the "r" is an approximant (a type of consonant that starts with an emphasized vowel sound), rather like "y" or "w", whereas at the end it is a true vowel, again like "ee" or "oo" respectively.