I'll keep practicing with your method and get back to you. Short and sweet version of my method in learning the Spanish rolling r (for those people who have short attention span like me ^-^). It’s the same concept as when you vibrate your lips to indicate it’s cold — “Brrr,” but you do it with your tongue. Still can't. During my studies, I was told that Spanish 'but' [peɾo] and 'dog' [pero] form such a minimal pair (please correct me if I'm wrong). I learned how to produce both Spanish R sounds when I first started learning Spanish in eighth grade — so it’s possible to learn them “late.” The only thing standing in your way or your students’ … )Except at the beginning of words that stand alone (where the r is trilled), a single r is formed (more or less) by hitting the tongue against the front of the palate. r/learnspanish: This is a subreddit for anyone interested in Spanish. So I'm sorry I'm not able to tell you that it worked like a charm, but I have never been able to roll my R's and I've been speaking spanish for a while. One question that I am always emailed from customers is “how do you trill the double ‘r’ in Spanish?” Until now my response has not been too helpful. Learning how to produce the Spanish flap R and the trilled RR can be hard, but it’s not impossible. This article will teach you, or help teachers actually trick their students into saying it right. I'd advice practising it isolated first, or just with a vowel, like arra, erre, irri, orro, urru. For a double ‘r’ the tip of the tongue should touch the palate and flap rapidly on the exhale, to create the trill sound. I've never been able to roll my R's. My R is a tap, but my RR sounds aspirated, like RH. Technically speaking, the rolled R is known as the alveolar trill and is found in quite a few languages, like Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Malay. The main reason it’s so hard to trill the Spanish R is because many native speakers of English simply can’t reproduce the sound—no matter how hard they try—since the English language has no place for the alveolar trill in its set of sounds, preferring instead the R we all know and love, found in words like wrap, ream, and terabyte. For a single ‘r,’ when it appears at the start of a word, the tongue touches the roof at the back of the mouth. It is sometimes said that the Spanish r" sounds like the "tt" in "little," so you're hearing correctly. She told me I sound like a Spaniard with a speech impediment, which is probably the best compliment I've received :). So I'm sorry I'm not able to tell you that it worked like a charm, but I have never been able to roll my R's and I've been speaking spanish for a while. I'm sure it will work for others. It was easy to follow and I know what it is supposed to feel like. But I like how you broke it down. r/Spanish: Discuss, teach others and learn Spanish. I usually respond by saying something like “flap your tongue on the roof of your mouth two or three times” or some other advice that I found … (Their /r/ is ‘alveolar’, which is the same tongue position as the consonants /t/ and /d/). It was easy to follow and I know what it is supposed to feel like. I'm sure it will work for others. Answer: The single r can indeed sound a lot like the English "d." (The same isn't true of the Spanish rr sound, which is trilled. Are you trying to isolate the sound and practise it alone or are you trying to trill hard R in words? I've never been able to roll my R's. I practiced about 10 to 15 minutes every day. Step-by-step instructions. Share information, stories and more on themes related to this wonderful language. I learned how to produce both Spanish R sounds when I first started learning Spanish in eighth grade — so it’s possible to learn them “late.” The only thing standing in your way or your students’ … Since I am able to pronounce the rolled/trilled /r… The hard r is a ‘postalveolar trill’ (as in Русский) is pronounced with your tongue fluttering in the position of /sh/, which is further back in the mouth than the trilled r of languages like Spanish. In Spanish, you’ll find a trilled r sound in two situations: 1. Spanish rolling r (or trilling r) took me about 3 months of daily practice. In Spanish [r] and [ɾ] have phonemic status: they provide a difference meaning forming a minimal pair. Thanks for posting. In fancy linguistics terms, it’s called an alveolar trill and it’s produced by a vibration of the tongue against the roof of the mouth.