when do you roll your tongue for the "r"s

Question

If I say "almuerzo" when do I start rolling my tongue and when do I stop?

Answer 1

As far as I know, you roll your tongue for "r". If there is a double "r" as in "arroz" the roll must be pronounced and a little long. However if it is one "r" as in "almuerzo", then you roll your tongue once.

Hope that helped.

Kevin

Answer 2

I agree with kevmil - when there are double r's ("rr").

In addition:

(1) When a word begins with "r" (ex. reloj, reír, ropa, etc)

(2) When an "r" comes after an:

=== "n" (ex. sonreir);

=== "l" (ex. alrededor);

=== "s" (ex. desrazonable);

Please see this Reference for more information about Spanish letters and their sounds.The more detailed explanation is toward the bottom of that page.

As kev said, "almuerzo" only requires one roll/flap as it does not meet any of the "rr" trill requirements. - Goldie_Miel, Oct 3, 2011

I've noticed that radio announcers on Spanish speaking stations really do a super strong and long roll of the Rs at the beginning of words they want to stress for some reason. This means of stressing words is one more cool feature of Spanish - trip2themoon, Oct 3, 2011

Hehe, I guess that's part of adding "hype" to it... - Goldie_Miel, Oct 3, 2011