Spanish Double R – Your Pronunciation Guide

home title Posted by Alex Murray on Sep 10th, 2009 | 2 comments home title

As I’m sure you’re aware the double R of the Spanish language is something you will want to get right if you are to speak Spanish with any kind of authenticity whatsoever. Now it goes without saying that you cannot pronounce the double R as you would with English instead you must roll your RR’s.

While most Americans can manage this without too much trouble it is usually harder for the Brits. The main reason is simply because of the accents of each country the tongue manipulation used in forming the RR sound in Spanish is more unusual to the British than Americans.

 

 

The best way to describe rolling the RR’s is to place the tip of your tongue curling upwards inside your mouth touching on the roof of your mouth about half a centimeter to a centimeter form your teeth. The trick is to then force air across your tongue whilst it is in this position but keeping your tongue flexible enough so it almost feels like it is vibrating.

Another way to think about forming the double R sound of Spanish words such as carro (car) and perro (dog) is to try and imitate the sound of a motorbike as it accelerates.

It is thought by some that rolling the Spanish RR’s is not something you can learn and you can either do it or you can’t a bit like rolling your tongue (no connection to being able to roll your RR’s). Let us know how you are getting on with your RR’s and if you have any tips for people trying to do the same as I’m sure this is a skill that can be acquired.
 
Image courtesy of LiveFromAmsterdam
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home title 2 Responses home title
  1. lilikindsli says:
    October 5, 2009 at 5:41 am

    1Ewtzy I want to say – thank you for this!

  2. Merle Cookey says:
    February 22, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    hey just want to post my comments and say thanks for a great post.

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