Does anyone have tips for rolling r's?
I was wondering if there are any tricks taught to young children in Spanish speaking countries to provide help for ease with rolling r's. Also, if you can't roll r's is it seen as a speech impediment to native Spanish speakers?
9 Answers
I still can't trill r's without conscious effort, but I do have one exercise that is helping me. Start with a motor, or purring sound. This will be at the back of your tongue, almost in your throat, like a guttural trill. Then maintain that vibration but move it forward along your tongue until the tip of your tongue is vibrating at the back of your teeth. It may seem odd, but if you practice you can eventually learn to move the trill back and forth along your tongue. The point of this exercise is to get the tip of your tongue used to vibrating like that.
Best thing a friend mentioned, and seems to work best for me, is that in english our tongue is always near the front teeth/lips when we talk. Gotta pull that sucker back a bit for the rrs to come out right, I find it hard doing them when they follow a vowel in the word, but if I deliberately get my tongue back a bit from the teeth and just below the roof of my mouth, it does help. Then repeatedly practice once you get the feel for it.
Studies in linguistics show that human beings are capable of producing every kind of sound. Because certain languages do not use certain phonemes (distinctive sounds), people grow up never using them and lose the ability to produce them. Also, there is no physiological basis for speech impediments like stuttering. It's actually psychological and it in turn affects the physical.
In other words, if you want to roll r's you need to keep practicing it. It's the only way you can bring it back. The older you are, the harder it is. Which is why older Americans learning Spanish sound ridiculous compared to high school students learning Spanish.
Just do a search under the "Answers" tab and you should find plenty of threads.
Piece of cake! Just pretend like you are saying 'd's' with the "r".
Try carro: "Carddo"
Once you can feel your tongue kind of "bouncing" off your soft pallete, you have it.
I always thought all Spanish children could roll their r's, because they grew up hearing it so they could just do it. Well, you learn something new every day. . .Pero, es muy dificil para mí porque mi lengua materna no es el español.
Mi profesora de Español 1 (la clase introductoria de la lengua de español, hace muchos años en el pasado) enseñóme para repetir la palabra:
Batera
Es muy útil, y me ayudó mucha. ¡Debes intentarlo! 
Sometimes you can use the American "D" sound. For example: To pronounce the name Míriam the Spanish way, try saying "medium" the American way
I over roll my r's and actually need to get down when you are supposed to roll them and when you aren't!
Also, I have met maybe 3 men ever who didn't like the soft purring sound right up next to their ear. 
¡Práctica! ¡Práctica! ¡Práctica! Es muy dificil en primero apreniendo pero es facil con práctica. Practice, Practice, Practice! It is difficult (to roll R's) when first learning but easy with practice.
