Quote Originally Posted by Оля
I don't know Portuguese... But I think it's like Italian or Spanish r, isn't it?
Well, I'd say in Portuguese the sounds tend to be stronger. But I can't remember an Italian r which is like Portuguese (I only studied Italian for a year though). And Spanish, close, but maybe a little softer.

Quote Originally Posted by Оля
There is a quotation from my Portuguese manual:

r
barato [бэ-'ра-ту] дешёвый
carro ['ка-рру] машина
amor [э-'мор] любовь
Is the r in "barato" like the r in "rato", or not?
Wow. Why do they put the "a" like "э"?? That's not at all how it sounds... Only correct one is "carro"...

And no, barato isn't like the "r" in rato. The first is much more pronounced. When saying "ra" in barato your tongue is supposed to move forward and hit the top of your mouth just behind the teeth. But when saying the "ra" in rato the tongue is slightly back in the mouth and doesn't go up at all to hit the top of the mouth. It's more of a throat thing.