Rolling your R's

Globex

Globex

President Scorpio
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
437
I'm learning Spanish and I'm trying to learn how to roll my R's. Today, I managed to get my tongue to vibrate and I am getting pretty good at it now. However, I have trouble with refining the vibration into an "r" sound and putting it into words. For example, when I try to say the word carro, it comes out like ca...<insert hissing sound here><insert loud vibrating sound here>o. If you know how to roll your R's, do you have any tips for me? What should I do to get better?
 
I can't do it. I never will be able to do it. I've given up trying to do it. Thank god for Chinese.
 
Are you pronouncing your single R correctly? It's not that weird mushy English R that isn't articulated anywhere in the mouth, its a 'flap' of the tongue against the same place S, D or T are articulated. One of the biggest mistakes made by anglophones, and particularly Americans with their very over-pronounced Rs, is totally butchering their single-Rs, let alone the rolled ones.

In fact, among English sounds, the Spanish single R is closest to the 'd' from ladder, so 'caro' is something like 'cado' but softer. The RR is basically that, but trilled instead of just a single flap.
 
Not sure since I am not sure if I can roll my Rs. But I think it's similar to positioning your tongue to make a "D" or "L" sound.
 
It is a muscle strength issue, you just need to practice. Try it after "l" sounds like "el rectángulo".

There are some native speakers that can't do it, either forever or for many years, it sounds pretty cool to hear them speak. Although I think it is in principle completely learnable by 99.9% of people. It's not that you actually make each fluttering movement by yourself; it is just a combination of the right amount of pressure and exhalation, so anyone who can make other sounds normally should be able to learn.
 
wow, i've never had a problem with the R. I didn't know people had problems with it either.

Anyway, try to imitate an indian person saying "very very good" then extend the r in 'very' with the indian accent, and you'll get somewhat closer to the Spanish R.
 
the trilled R as in "carro" (SA for "coche" / car, right?) has the tongue hit the.... uhm... it's not the palate... that ridge behind your teeth... on average about 6-8 times (sounds a lot but this is jsut fractions of a second) while pronouncing the R when done by Spaniards from Madrid, if I remember correctly. does that help you in any way when practicing your R and then incorporating that into Spanish speech?
 
Globex said:
I managed to get my tongue to vibrate and I am getting pretty good at it now.
Click to expand...

That's got to be a pretty useful skill to have outside of language...
 
really? that is like 20 years old that joke. well I can only attest for the last 10 I believe.
 
LightFang said:
Yes, if he practices enough, he can be a cunning linguist.
Click to expand...

Good one.

Going from English to Spanish to German I have three ways to pronounce my R's.
 
@Lightfang: :rotfl:

@ OP: Since you are able to vibrate your tongue now, but your R sounds more like a hissing, make sure you are voicing it. Your description sounds just like a voiceless alveolar trilled consonant.
Trilled -> your tongue vibrates. Alveolar -> it's vibrating in the right spot, in that gap in the upper-front part of the mouth. You need to make it VOICED though, to sound like a normal rolled R. Example: An "S" is a voiceless consonant. A "Z" is a voiced consonant. Make sure that while you pronounce the R, you don't actually just exhale air and vibrate your tongue, but that you're also vibrating your vocal cords while doing it.
 
Just to make you feel a bit better, I might mention that children whose first language has this feature usually can't get it right until they are a few years old. Sometimes not until around the time they enter school.
 
Yes, true. I only learned how to say it when I was almost 6, which was many years after I learned to have a very fluent speaking. I know people who can't say it, although I'm sure it's not a "physical" disability of theirs.
 
i dont know, i understand the concept and can make that sound sometimes, but on other occasions it's just an american english "r" coming out of my mouth involuntarily...
so it may have to do with physiological things...
 
It might have. :)

But then again some Italians can't make the H sound to save their lives, but they make it involuntarily when laughing... :)

I think in the majority of the cases when people can't say it, it's because they are not used to it. Sometimes when I speak English I will still accidentally put a trilled R in there... (although it's been long since it last happened to me)
 
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