Trilled R

Untrilled and Trilled R First: Loosen up your mouth Relax your lips and make a sound like a machine gun by vibrating your tongue (tongue touching the roof of your mouth, not your teeth). Say (kind of quickly): hot of pot tea, pot of hot tea Single Untrilled R The untrilled R occurs whenever a single “r” is found in a word, except when at the beginning of a word or after the consonants L, N, and S. How to Pronounce It Say: ladder Now: break it down into la -­‐ dder In the “dd” the tongue is in the same position as the single untrilled R in Spanish (not the same sound though). The same can be done with butter (bu-­‐tter) and voter (vo-­‐ter). Say: ladder, butter, voter, water, better, buddy Untrilled R Words Pero Suspirir Caro General Puro Graduar Barato Para Control Trilled R There is no English equivalent to the trilled R How to Trill Say: Dracula Now Say: the “d” Now Say: the “r” Now say it faster trying to push air over your tongue while relaxing the very tip of it. When to Trill When you see the double “rr” in a word – carro, perro When you see a single “r” at the beginning of a word – ratón, rico After the letter L, N, and S – alrededor, honradez, Israel When a word ends in single “r” (very slightly) – por, tomar Trilled R Words Rosa Hablar Carro Burro Perro Correr Carrera Por Guerra Borrador Ratón Alrededor If You Can’t Roll Your R’s Not having the ability to trill the r does not mean you cannot be a Spanish speaker, as there are people who cannot trill it. However, you have to find a way to distinguish words like pero, and perro. They cannot sound the same. Try to find trilled R’s in other languages that might be easier for you to pronounce. Don’t give up speaking the entire language because you cannot pronounce one letter. Tongue Twisters ONE En tres tristes trastos de trigo, tres tristes tigres comían trigo. Comían trigo, tres tristes tigres, en tres tristes trastos de trigo TWO Erre con erre cigarro erre con erre barril Rápido ruedan los carros cargados de azúcar al ferrocarril THREE Rosa Rizo resa ruso, ruso reza Rosa Rizo