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Spanish "rr" | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| medchess Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6188 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 32 29 October 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have taken a long break from languages but am going to get back into it very intensively, starting with Spanish, but what has been holding me back is inability to pronounce the "rr" sound. I've tried reading different sentences over and over in the past but did not seem to get it.
The other question is, where is my tongue supposed to go when I make the sound? Does my tongue touch the front of the hard palate, the middle, or the back? Is it the top of my tongue or the bottom that makes contact? Or the front of the tongue in-between the top and the bottom? Hopefully there is an exercise that someone can tell me which I can practice daily and eventually I should get it. Many thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 32 30 October 2010 at 2:50am | IP Logged | ||
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To get your tongue "ïn the groove" try imitating a machine gun sound tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh.... then try to roll your erres. that's what works for me.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 3 of 32 30 October 2010 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Not to be rude, but if people knew how to make a machine gun noise, or a car engine noise with their tongue, they wouldn't be asking how to do the rr sound in Spanish. I looked up how to pronounce the rr a year ago and a lot of the suggested information was imitating a machine gun/car engine sound, and my response was "If I knew how to do that ****ing ****, I wouldn't spend my ****ing time looking up how to make this mother ****ing sound."
Some people just don't know how to make a machine gun sound just using our tongue, which is why the OP asked for the tongue position and other things. Not trying to be rude at all, but not everyone can make every noise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 32 30 October 2010 at 5:54am | IP Logged | ||
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One method, which I believe was invented by French stage actor, is to quickly say one syllable nonsense words in which a "t" is followed by a "d." For example try saying tidip, tidip, tidip, tidip, tidip... as fast as you can. If you do this fast and often enough, at one point your tongue will "give up" and you'll actually say "trip" with a rolling "r" instead of "tidip." If that doesn't work for you, try saying nonsense words with "b" and "d." For example, you could quickly say "bdim, bdim, bdim..." and will eventually end up with "brim" etc.
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| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 32 30 October 2010 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Can you roll your R's at all already? If you can't at all then you need to sit down and just try. Over and over. When I was in Germany I finally got sick of my American R and literally sat and tried to make the German R sound over and over for several minutes at a time - obviously exaggerating it in doing so but I finally got it down in a few days. Well more or less. I got a good approximation so that a lot of Germans would be surprised to find out that I was American. The German R is just like the French R (at least as far as I can tell) - back in the throat but somehow when I started dabbling in Spanish a year or so later I was able to get my tongue around rolling the R with the tongue without much effort. Which surprised me. Growing up my sister used to tease me by making the machine gun noise with her tongue because I couldn't do it. We weren't trying to speak Spanish at all - just make the machine gun noise and I thought I was just someone whose tongue wouldn't do it but it turned out I was wrong. Just sit down and try to flap your tongue over and over. You'll get it eventually.
An interesting side effect for me when I learned the German R - I got a sore throat. I was making my throat do something that it had never done and I think there's throat calluses or something because it didn't like it! I'm serious. But I didn't let this stop me and it cleared up in a couple weeks. Very strange and interesting and it probably won't happen to you from flapping your tongue but your tongue may get tired and sore. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6676 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 6 of 32 30 October 2010 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Check my sounds on the left. I think it might be useful for you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ilcommunication Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6693 days ago 115 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 32 31 October 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Point the tip of your tongue towards the roof of your mouth (don't touch it yet)...then blow outward and then touch your tongue tip to the gums right behind the teeth (where your mouth starts to curve). The tongue should bounce forward and backward, making the sound*. That alone should sound like you're trying to imitate a Hollywood movie's WWII machine gun.
I hope that helps.... If you can get it, you'll get the RR. Good luck, it'll be a lot of fun if you can figure it out! * On edit: think of the edge of a flag flapping in a heavy wind. Your tongue isn't moving itself to make the sound, your breath should be making the tongue flap along the roof of your mouth as you hold it in place. That's the best way I can describe it. Edited by ilcommunication on 31 October 2010 at 1:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5567 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 8 of 32 03 November 2010 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you very much for making me aware of those. It took me about 6 months just to get a kind of rr going, and I think your recordings will help me improve upon it a lot. Much thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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