My trilled R's sound awkward?
A few weeks ago I finally learned how to roll my tongue! I know it is because I looked in the mirror and the tongue was vibrating.
But when I put it with words, like perro or carro, it sounds like this:
Peeeerrrroo.
Caaaarrrroo.
The first vowel (e and a, in perro and carro), are extended and the R sounds bad. Any suggestions? Practicing is something I need to do, but any tips on how to pronounce it? Someone said that I am saying the word too slow.
7 Answers
Try watching old pirate movies & pretend you're a pirate... Why are pirates pirates ? Because they 'arrr'. Maybe you could get a parrot & teach it to squawk 'pieces of eight' (although cutting your leg off might be a step too far).
Seriously, I never had any problem with rrrolling my R's (by which I don't mean shaking my bahookie) because the 'rhotic' R is part of my native speech anyway, although I appreciate not everyone uses it or finds it easy.
It seems to me that your problem is not so much the R itself but the preceding vowel, so perhaps the conscious effort of 'arrring' is causing you to delay, hence stretch the preceding vowel. Maybe try 'rrring', i.e. pronounce the R alone in isolation rather than in a word. Try making the noise of a motorbike revving its engine, rrr rrr rrr.
In time the sound will feel more natural and intuitive, hence requiring less conscious effort, allowing you to pronounce the whole word more naturally.
I like the guys on Spanish obsessed. Here is a post about rolling the r. I found it helpful. Seems to me you are more or less there. roll R
He also explains how the sound alters depending on the letters surrounding the r.
I find that saying a "dr" (with a soft D sound) really helps when you're trying to trill the "r." For example, "Caro" would sound like "cadro." Now as for really rolling the Rs, I'm the wrong person to ask!
You can also practice this sentence:
Rapidos ruedan los carros cargados de azucar al ferrocarril.
It uses both "R" sounds.
Haha.. I have been trying to practice this for years, for some people it doesn't come very naturally. I can do the single r with words such as tratar, etc that have a slight roll easily. My tongue doesn't have a problem doing the r when it is preceded by a consonant However, When it comes to double r, I can roll it, but I have trouble rolling a double r in the middle of a word without making the words sound weird. I guess my tongue has a problem transitioning from the double r into the rest of the word. Or from the beginning of the word into double r.
Actually, come to think of it, I think I have about the same problem as you, haha. When I roll my double r's it distorts the rest of the word kind of like you were explaining
I was reading to my son at bedtime this evening & he happened to request the story of Romulus & Remus (we're working through ancient myths & legends & the book has a picture of them & the she-wolf on its cover). This gave me a chance to listen to how I pronounce the 'rhotic' R. Actually, I believe the term 'rhotic' may be wrong. From what I gather this term is used to distinguish varieties of English in how they respectively pronounce R (or not) when it occurs medially or finally. Thus, perhaps 'trilled' is more apposite.
In any event, while I was reading, I realised that I do pronounce every R, but in fact I tend to roll the R much more distinctly at the starts of words, hence RRRomulus and RRRemus. Of course, this sound is easily replicated medially or finally, but the Scots characteristic R is perhaps more noticeable in the pronunciation of initial R, e.g. names like RRRobert.
Hence I do still wonder how much actual difference there is between the Spanish words, for example, 'pero' and perro'. 'Pero' occurs often, 'perro' less frequently. If I were to have to say 'perro', I think I would simply lengthen the R, although in fast or less self-conscious speech, I suspect I might just say 'pero'.
In the Scots accent, we certainly infer no difference for the sake of pronunciation between the respective orthographies of single or double R, hence 'sorrow' and 'aura' have the same R sound. However, in 'horror' we definitely pronounce two distinct R sounds, i.e. medially and finally, whereas Southern English might tend to glide over the first and swallow the second. And in an example like 'there are', again we would utter two distinct R sounds, whereas Southern English might avoid R entirely, i.e. more like 'they ah'.
I think a lot of non-native Spanish speakers become obsessed with rolling their 'R's, there's probably a lot of other things that need more attention. Gringos that are obsessed with trilling 'R's sound like they are obsessed when they speak, it's just an incredibly unnatural sound when you're 'forcing' it.
In a meeting the other day, another 'americano' was speaking with others in the group in Spanish, he never missed a beat, his Spanish was excellent, but his accent was typical United States. He never rolled an R or trilled an 'RR', but I was so proud of him because he was speaking so fluently. Nobody had any problems understanding him.
My point is, if you can't do it, don't worry about it. It's just an accent thing, that's all.
