From the article: Pronouncing the RR
If you try pronouncing the RR of Spanish like you do in English, not only will you be wrong, you'll also mark yourself as someone who doesn't care about trying to pronounce correctly. Although the RR of Spanish is different than what you're used to, it isn't all that difficult, and millions of native English speakers have mastered it. If you're one of those, please offer your explanation to others so they can learn as well. Share Your Advice
Not too stiff
- I couldn't roll my rr's at all at first. Then I just flicked my tongue when saying "perro" it was an almost roll. I did that and said as many words as I knew with the rr. Eventually I got it. Don't make your tongue too stiff, keep it flat against your top teeth kind of and bend the tip so it's between the bumps on the roof of your mouth and your teeth. Then you practice as often as you can. Keep your tongue relaxed. When it's too stiff, it's much harder to roll your rr's. It'll be hard at first, but you'll notice yourself getting better with time. Good luck!
- —Guest RRRR
That sound
- All American kids make the "scary" sound. Uhohohohohoooo. That should get you started.
- —Guest Andy
Don't smile and try to roll!
- If you're at the point where sometimes you can roll your rr's and other times you can't, but cannot figure out why. Here are some things I noticed as I practiced: 1) Certain sounds before and after the rr put your mouth/lips in positions where you can't roll an r. You have to close your mouth! As you get better, you'll be able to get your mouth in the correct position faster and the sounds will merge more. 2) If you're laughing or smiling your lips are turned up and your mouth is open, so you won't be able to roll! 3) Do not make an English r sound, it also puts your mouth in the wrong position. Hope this helps!
- —Guest Nicole
Don't give up
- I started practicing the RR over a year ago and am still on websites looking for tips. Even so, I'm sure it's simply a matter of practice. Like all walks of life, some people are lucky and some have to work hard!
- —Guest J
If I can do it, so can you
- I learned Arabic some years ago, and gave up trying to trill the "rr" sound -- I thought I was "genetically" unable as I have some degree of tongue-tie. However, I am so motivated with Spanish that I gave it extra attention. I like the advice someone else gave, try it out somewhere when you aren't going to feel overheard, because there is definitely a need to really expel more air than you are used to, to make the trill. I too used practice words -- "carro," "burro," "corre," "aburrido" and I'm still jotting them doen to practice. It suddenly happened one day when I was in the car, and it's improving every day. I was ecstatic the first time I realized I'd succeeded. Definitely worth it for that natural "high." :)
- —Guest sally
How to pronounce your Spanish r's
- No need to tape-record examples. Instead, log on to http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php and feed in the sample sentences. You can even vary the dialects.
- —FulhamFC
Sing!
- When I was first learning Italian it was REALLY hard to trill the r's . . . but singing along with Berlitz' Rush Hour Italian (they've got it in Spanish, too!) really helped. It was just easier to transfer from song to speech after singing many times.
- —Guest PatG
How to pronounce your Spanish r's
- Tape-record a native Spanish speaker saying these phrases: Roberto y Enrique paseaban alrededor de la reja. Querian entregar el recado, pero la cosa estaba tan enredada que optaron por esperar una hora más. No estaban enterado de que estaba enterrado el rico que había residido en ese barrio de Roma. Ere on ere cigarro, ere con ere barril, rápido corren los carros cargdos de azúcar del ferrocarril. Listen to the recording over and over and saying the phrases over and over.
- —Chanute
Controlling it once you can do it is key
- One trick for making rr more distinct from r that works for me is to make almost a syllable break between the r's in rr. For example: carr-rro and perr-rro.
- —RexFury
Easiest way
- It's easy as water. Remember that Coca-Cola advertisement when they drink or touch the bottle of the Coke and then they shake saying "rrrrrr." That's the twister.
- —Guest MrKeNDeY
RR- Scotland
- Here in Scotland we often roll the "r" sound anyway but we are not always aware of it. For us the Spanish RR sound isn't too hard but the difficulty for me is saying "urru" or "irri" sounds. I have no problem with "perro" and "carro."
- —Guest Stuart
A few tricks
- Speaking fluent French (and English), I used to only do throat "r" sounds, which are very wrong in Spanish!!! I could not for the life of me understand how to make the tip of tongue vibrate to make the trilled RR sounds. But, with a few tricks and some practice and experimenting, I finally got it! First say words like "better, butter, rudder, etc" When you make the "tt" sound, that's where your tongue should be. Then I repeated the phrase "put it on" over and over, faster and faster. A few days later, by experimenting, by tongue began to vibrate a bit as I said "put it on". It took a lot of practice but eventually, it began to trill! Practice "orro, erre, arra, urru and irri". Then I made a long list of words that start with "r" and have "rr"s in them (perros, correr, ferrocarril, burrito, recorrido, recurrir, barrio, borrachera, cerrar, erradicar, corregir, derribar, rapido, requerrir, etc) and have been practicing, I'm getting better everyday and I can almost say each word perfectly!
- —Guest RRRRawr
When you don't roll RR correctly
- Just a funny story about who badly you can be misunderstood if you don't roll properly. I used to be a police officer in Calif's Central Valley. I was talking with some children about my police K-9. Every time I saw these kids I'd stop, say hi and say, do you like my dog: "¿Os gusta mí perro?" However I was unable to roll the rr and it came out more like the letter "d" which made them laugh like crazy. One day I asked their Dad why they thought I was so funny and he told me that I was actually saying "Os gusta mí pedo" or how do you like my methane gas expulsion from my posterior? It was all very funny but demonstrated to me the need to practice my Spanish rr much more.
- —Guest ocbizlaw
D?
- When I try to speak Spanish, I find it a lot easier to just imagine like those R's are D's almost, like a light touch on the "D" sound. e.g. Perro = Pedo
- —Guest sturve
How I learned it:
- First, I spent a long time "warming" my tongue up, that is, making raspberries and other ridiculous sounds to loosen it up. Then, I started saying words like "caro" and "pero" over and over, to see where my tongue has to go. Then I said the exact same words, but with more emphasis, sort of like an explosion. You say the same words, but force the air more to the front of you mouth. This is how I "tricked" myself into first pronouncing it. It took me weeks of extra practicing to get the harder rr's (like after i in irrompible, or after consonants like l, n, and s). Actually, I still have problems with the last one! Note: If you find pronouncing rr easier when it's after a and o than after e and u, that's totally normal!
- —Guest Darren
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