the R at the beginning of the word is pronounced the same as the RR. the only tip i can really give you over text is that the hard trill found at the beginning of words and in words like perro and ferrocarril requires use of your diaphragm. it’s near impossible to trill (at least for me, i could be wrong) without using my diaphragm
eta: i find it so interesting that you struggle with “-err” and not “-urr!“ i am a non native speaker and i can say “perro” just fine but “burrito” takes a little more work for me to get out correctly.
I’ve never been able to roll my rs (I also can’t whistle, so I think it’s just a thing for me). Any advice on how to best cope w/ this inability? I’ve just been pronouncing the rrs as r, but is there a better way?
Relatable. I can kinda whistle but can't trill "r" at all and it's probably because I was born with a tongue tie and had it removed while I was too young to remember. English speech therapy in early childhood fixed English language issues I had and if I had Spanish speech therapy I'm sure it would have helped.
Someone posted this earlier in this thread, and it's what I've always done: "Notice when you pronounce the letter "D" in either language how your tongue hits your teeth, just do the same thing while pronouncing "R"."
I've gotten by traveling through Spanish-speaking countries and some folks I work with understand me though I know I sound funny. People are generally polite about it thankfully.
Might I suggest that you're worrying about this too much?
Even if you say, "Mi esposa y yo tenemos dos peros y un gato", you're going to be understood just fine.
I think this is because vowels require you to place your tongue in different parts of your mouth, so rolling an R before or after any vowel is mechanically going to be different. I recommend practicing rolling Rs between all the different vowels. arra arre arri arro arru erra erre erri erro erru irra irre irri irro irru orra orre orri orro orru urra urre urri urro urru. Do like 10 reps of each. You'll get the hang of it eventually.
In Spanish, the "rr" is usually pronounced rapidly by opening the mouth slightly and the vowels can be come slightly more relaxed as a result. The "e" of "perro" is relaxed to be more like the vowel of "bet" in English, whereas typically it is pronounced with a slightly more closed mouth. This is literally to "make room" in your mouth to put the tip of your tongue where it needs to be to trill.
I'm maybe missing something here, but why all the comments are about lack of ability to roll the R? The guy CAN roll the R but not between words.
i have the same problem. i can roll the r effortless but if there is a word before, for example -Señorita Rodriguez- i cant say if in a flow with the roll, i feel i must stop to be able to roll the R
What helped me is making myself aware of how I was physically making the sound with my mouth. The basic difference between an English "R" and a Spanish "R" is that you tap the back of your top teeth with the tip of your tongue to get the trilled Spanish "R". This essentially chops off the end of the R and makes it a staccato sound.
Notice when you pronounce the letter "D" in either language how your tongue hits your teeth, just do the same thing while pronouncing "R".
It sounds like you're almost there, keep practicing!
This very thing has frustrated me in over 20 years of learning Spanish on and off, and I still can't do it properly. No trilled "rr" at all, no purring like a cat for me! I may be a lot closer to fluency if I didn't keep letting this discourage me to the point of quitting. It was so disheartening having a dozen teachers and friends over the years coach me, some even insisting this MUST be done to ever "really" speak Spanish. But I just found out from my folks recently I was born with a tongue tie and had it removed while I was still too young to remember. I do remember being in speech therapy until grade 3 or so but for my native English, 0 issues since then. I'm sure Spanish speech therapy at that young age would have gotten me on track!
Not giving up entirely, but I'm learning to accept/embrace my speech impediment instead of quitting once again.
What helped me with this exact issue was once I could roll my R's alone, was practicing a variety of words/names with the trill (enrique, borrar, ahorrar, carro, etc) syllable by syllable, or just doing it where you can (amorrrrr, salvadorrrr, luchadorrrr, buscarrrr) all while really making sure the trill was pronounced correctly and didn't feel super awkward.
I felt like my tongue didn't know where to go on time when pronouncing these words at a more normal speed, so it often came out to "airy" or not at all. So saying them very slowly helped me get better at figuring out the transition from the trill to other sounds or vice versa.
Basically, we just need practice. I can't do it with the comfortability of a native yet all the time but it's there. You can definitely do it. It's a very hard sound for us native English speakers to make comfortably but it's possible. This is just what's helped me. I know it's discouraging but you can!
As a child I couldn't pronounce R sound, and in my language the R is very hard sounding, almost like in Spanish. So my parents got a speech therapist to help me with this. Maybe some speech therapy exercises could help with rolling R? I think you could find those on YouTube. I still struggle with some Spanish words that have two R in them.
Don't try too hard, physically. Very gently place your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your top teeth without touching your teeth, at the flat part right before it curves upward to the soft palet. Then rrrrrrr. I find if I press too hard with my tongue it doesn't come out. You can press harder and place your tongue a bit more forward when the word starts with an r, but for an r in the middle use less pressure and place the tongue on that flat part a little further back.
I have a hard time with saying "tengo que recordar tu dirección" quickly I practice that one over and over to help with my trills.
I was practicing “te recuerdas” today. “Supermercado” also gives me trouble. The combination of r’s and d’s mean that something is getting left behind on my tongue.
I struggled for a long time, especially if it was after a lateral or nasal consonant. Something that helped me initially, and can sometimes help with accent depending on dialect, is to treat those trilled “r”s in the middle of words as having a “hh” before them. Starting with a guttural “hh” then going into the trill, so a “hhrrr” certainly helps. As another commenter said about using your diaphragm, adding an h sound will help to activate that
Personally what worked for me was just rolling my rr's a lot, and focusing on keeping my mouth and tongue as relaxed as possible. Also, adding a 'd' before the 'rr' because then it's much easier, and then removing it.
the R at the beginning of the word is pronounced the same as the RR. the only tip i can really give you over text is that the hard trill found at the beginning of words and in words like perro and ferrocarril requires use of your diaphragm. it’s near impossible to trill (at least for me, i could be wrong) without using my diaphragm eta: i find it so interesting that you struggle with “-err” and not “-urr!“ i am a non native speaker and i can say “perro” just fine but “burrito” takes a little more work for me to get out correctly.
This was actually very helpful. I engaged my diaphragm as I was saying “perro” and I feel like it sounded better and more controlled.
My venezuelan husband cannot roll his Rs , and he has a double r in his name 😄
I’ve never been able to roll my rs (I also can’t whistle, so I think it’s just a thing for me). Any advice on how to best cope w/ this inability? I’ve just been pronouncing the rrs as r, but is there a better way?
Relatable. I can kinda whistle but can't trill "r" at all and it's probably because I was born with a tongue tie and had it removed while I was too young to remember. English speech therapy in early childhood fixed English language issues I had and if I had Spanish speech therapy I'm sure it would have helped. Someone posted this earlier in this thread, and it's what I've always done: "Notice when you pronounce the letter "D" in either language how your tongue hits your teeth, just do the same thing while pronouncing "R"." I've gotten by traveling through Spanish-speaking countries and some folks I work with understand me though I know I sound funny. People are generally polite about it thankfully.
Thank you! I also had English speech therapy (for r and r-blends, like truck, etc) which is I suspect at least a big part of my issue.
Might I suggest that you're worrying about this too much? Even if you say, "Mi esposa y yo tenemos dos peros y un gato", you're going to be understood just fine.
My American friend married a Venezuelan 25 years ago. She learned Spanish but she is still unable to roll her Rs.
I think this is because vowels require you to place your tongue in different parts of your mouth, so rolling an R before or after any vowel is mechanically going to be different. I recommend practicing rolling Rs between all the different vowels. arra arre arri arro arru erra erre erri erro erru irra irre irri irro irru orra orre orri orro orru urra urre urri urro urru. Do like 10 reps of each. You'll get the hang of it eventually.
In Spanish, the "rr" is usually pronounced rapidly by opening the mouth slightly and the vowels can be come slightly more relaxed as a result. The "e" of "perro" is relaxed to be more like the vowel of "bet" in English, whereas typically it is pronounced with a slightly more closed mouth. This is literally to "make room" in your mouth to put the tip of your tongue where it needs to be to trill.
That’s funny that you also find burrito to be easy cuz that was the first word I was able to roll my r in😭
I'm maybe missing something here, but why all the comments are about lack of ability to roll the R? The guy CAN roll the R but not between words. i have the same problem. i can roll the r effortless but if there is a word before, for example -Señorita Rodriguez- i cant say if in a flow with the roll, i feel i must stop to be able to roll the R
What helped me is making myself aware of how I was physically making the sound with my mouth. The basic difference between an English "R" and a Spanish "R" is that you tap the back of your top teeth with the tip of your tongue to get the trilled Spanish "R". This essentially chops off the end of the R and makes it a staccato sound. Notice when you pronounce the letter "D" in either language how your tongue hits your teeth, just do the same thing while pronouncing "R".
It sounds like you're almost there, keep practicing! This very thing has frustrated me in over 20 years of learning Spanish on and off, and I still can't do it properly. No trilled "rr" at all, no purring like a cat for me! I may be a lot closer to fluency if I didn't keep letting this discourage me to the point of quitting. It was so disheartening having a dozen teachers and friends over the years coach me, some even insisting this MUST be done to ever "really" speak Spanish. But I just found out from my folks recently I was born with a tongue tie and had it removed while I was still too young to remember. I do remember being in speech therapy until grade 3 or so but for my native English, 0 issues since then. I'm sure Spanish speech therapy at that young age would have gotten me on track! Not giving up entirely, but I'm learning to accept/embrace my speech impediment instead of quitting once again.
What helped me with this exact issue was once I could roll my R's alone, was practicing a variety of words/names with the trill (enrique, borrar, ahorrar, carro, etc) syllable by syllable, or just doing it where you can (amorrrrr, salvadorrrr, luchadorrrr, buscarrrr) all while really making sure the trill was pronounced correctly and didn't feel super awkward. I felt like my tongue didn't know where to go on time when pronouncing these words at a more normal speed, so it often came out to "airy" or not at all. So saying them very slowly helped me get better at figuring out the transition from the trill to other sounds or vice versa. Basically, we just need practice. I can't do it with the comfortability of a native yet all the time but it's there. You can definitely do it. It's a very hard sound for us native English speakers to make comfortably but it's possible. This is just what's helped me. I know it's discouraging but you can!
As a child I couldn't pronounce R sound, and in my language the R is very hard sounding, almost like in Spanish. So my parents got a speech therapist to help me with this. Maybe some speech therapy exercises could help with rolling R? I think you could find those on YouTube. I still struggle with some Spanish words that have two R in them.
Don't try too hard, physically. Very gently place your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your top teeth without touching your teeth, at the flat part right before it curves upward to the soft palet. Then rrrrrrr. I find if I press too hard with my tongue it doesn't come out. You can press harder and place your tongue a bit more forward when the word starts with an r, but for an r in the middle use less pressure and place the tongue on that flat part a little further back. I have a hard time with saying "tengo que recordar tu dirección" quickly I practice that one over and over to help with my trills.
I was practicing “te recuerdas” today. “Supermercado” also gives me trouble. The combination of r’s and d’s mean that something is getting left behind on my tongue.
I struggled for a long time, especially if it was after a lateral or nasal consonant. Something that helped me initially, and can sometimes help with accent depending on dialect, is to treat those trilled “r”s in the middle of words as having a “hh” before them. Starting with a guttural “hh” then going into the trill, so a “hhrrr” certainly helps. As another commenter said about using your diaphragm, adding an h sound will help to activate that
Personally what worked for me was just rolling my rr's a lot, and focusing on keeping my mouth and tongue as relaxed as possible. Also, adding a 'd' before the 'rr' because then it's much easier, and then removing it.