Retroflex

Retroflex sounds are made with the tongue curled (‘flex’) back (‘retro’) to the hard palate. (This is one case where the ‘place of articulation’ refers to the active articulator.) The symbols for retroflex sounds are easy to remember: they all have a rightward-facing hook on the bottom: .

Retroflex  are frequently used in Indian varieties of English instead of alveolars for the sounds [t d n]. (Many Indian languages have dental and retroflex or postalveolar sounds, but not alveolar.) The retroflex fricative sound  also occurs in some varieties of English, notably some Scottish and North American varieties, as a combination of [r] + [s], as in ‘of course’,. And many varieties of American English use  for the r-sound; this is also known as ‘curled-r’.