[ɹil] | real | |
[ɡɹo] | grow | |
[fɑɹ] | far % |
So why isn't the [ɹ] symbol rightside-up? There is in fact a rightside-up [r] symbol, but it represents the "trilled" r sound (as in Spanish, for example), which is actually a fair bit more common in the world's languages than the English kind. So the International Phonetic Association used the regular symbol [r] for the more common trilled r, and the rarer English sound had to make do with the upside-down version.