Rolling those R's

[andreacoyotzi]

We all know that rolling those r’s in Spanish can be a bit difficult at the beginning. But it’s all about practice, patience, and trying to have fun with it, so it doesn’t become frustrating!

If you are a native English Speaker, one way to approach it is by trying to mimic the R in a Scottish accent. Yup, Scotts roll their r’s alright. Also, how many of us haven’t watched those classic movie villains from Rusia speak with that rolled R threating James Bond at every time they get!

So get your bag of popcorn, put on Brave Hearth and/or those Sean Connery classics and get your R’s started!

(I advise to leave that popcorn maybe after the practice; otherwise, have a glass of water near you since it will be quite the experience).

If you are looking for a more thorough approach on those R’s here are some youtube tutorials which are helpful for practice:

How to Roll Your R's - You Already Know How! (For Italian, Spanish, etc.)

Ep. 49 "How To Roll Your R's and Tongue Trills" - Voice Lessons To The World

And always remember it takes a bit of time, it’s like when we learn to whistle, we try different ways of blowing that air and shaping the mouth until one blissful day that sound comes along!

[SKrausser]

To practice it a bit…:

1. Por un río bajan tres tablas tartarabicuadriculadas, el destartarabicuadriculador que las destartarabicuadriculase, buen destartarabicuadriculador será.
2. En el peral de Pedro aparecieron pocas peras porque los perros pudieron rescatarlas a pesar de las pedradas que con poca puntería les propinaba Paco.
3. Rasquín era un rascón que rascaba en una risca, con un tosco rasca risca rascador, rasca que rasca acabó con el risco, rasca la risca, rascó un rincón.

Enjoy it…

[charhew]

Once you FINALLY have a breakthrough and manage to roll your R’s, I still find that the RR is easier to pronounce in certain words than others. If you find you can pronounce certain words and not others, I recommend doing the following drills.

For me, the first word I was able to say properly was “derrame” (spill).

Pro tip: I find that the RR is easier to pronounce in most words that begin with “D” or “T”. Something about the tongue position for the D or T helps with rolling the RR.

Try words like: derrame, torre, terraza

1. Repeat the words you CAN pronounce over and over. In my case, I said “derrame derrame derrame…” while I drove, when I was bored, preparing food, etc.

2. Alternate between your best RR word and the one you’re learning. I struggled to say “perro”. So I practiced saying “derrame, perro, derrame, perro, derrame…” until I could transfer that RR sound into the new word.

3. Make a list of RR words and read it every day. You can copy the list I used to practice below:

correr
cerrar
el perro
el burro
ferrocarril
desarrollar
el carro
la torre
el barro
parrilla
borroso
el derrame
errar
el zorro
el barrio
barril
barriga
barrer
arroz
arreglar
aburrido
ocurrir
carrera
la tierra
la terraza
el gorro
carrusel
cigarro
el párrafo
jarra
arrojar
la guitarra
arruinar
susurrar

Pro tip: It’s a good idea to practice new words together with their article (el/la) so you can memorize which ones are masculine or feminine.

[sue71]

Thank you so much for this thread.

I’ve been trying and trying to roll my r’s without luck for months!!!

I sound like a machine gun

I won’t speak Spanish to anyone out loud as I’m not confident enough.

The R words put me off

I will work my way through your list of words and hope one day to be successful!!!

Thanks again and much love to all the chatterbug team xxx

[Leocadie]

Thank you so much @sue71 for refreshing this thread !

I’m facing the same trying to roll my r’s the best I can… now I know how to practice !

I wish you the best on your Spanish learning journey !

[sue71]

I wish you the best too @Leocadie

When I try to roll my R’s, they sound nothing like r’s at all!!!

If people could see or hear me, they would think I was crazy (maybe they’d be right)

[andreacoyotzi]

@sue71 sounding like a machine gun sounds like you are going full on for it! and that is great!

Rolling the R’s might take some tries but with your determination you’ll get there and will roll those R’s in your own way

Next time you are in front of an R rolling moment and the R’s begin to ask you “who are you?” just like they asked Rambo (and his machine gun), you tell them “Your worst nightmare” rrrrrrr

You got this

[sue71]

Lololololololololololol @andreacoyotzi

That’s hilarious, I love it. That really cheered me up this morning

Next time I practice, I’ll look in the mirror and see rambo looking back at me (and I’ll quote from first blood part two)

Sir, do we get to win this time?

Yes, yes, yes!!! I will win, I will conquer these R’s

[Leocadie]

Hey Rrrrrrambo team here !

Our great @Altair is doing a stream on the topic tomorrow !

For all those who have time : meet there and practice !
For everybody: you can watch the stream later over and over and overrrrrr again until you get there !

Streams: "r" y "rr" in Spanish 😝

[sue71]

@Leocadie & @Altair I’m so looking forward to this stream.

I’m on the verge of giving up because I just can’t do it!!! Lol

Hopefully Altair will have some helpful tips

Xxx

[Leocadie]

Never give up @sue71 ,just keep rolling !!

[sue71]

Lololololololol

If only I could!!! @Leocadie

[sue71]

Big shout out to @Altair!!!

Thank you so much for your stream today.

Very helpful, I’m sure I’ll be rrrrrolling with the best of them before long

[Altair]

I’m so glad you enjoyed the stream @sue71 I’m sure that you’ll nail those Rs i no time and soon will be able to say those trabalenguas that we talked about during the stream.