rolling my rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs- Italian and Spanish

1. Listen to a foreign language radio or an Internet radio station, and take note of the pronunciation. It's easier to pick up the proper technique if you're exposed to it.

2. Warm up your tongue so it can get used to some of the positions required for rolling "r"s. Try to fold your tongue in half, turn it upside down, flutter it, curl it up and down, and so on.

3. Relax your mouth and tongue, and slightly open your lips. Keep your mouth relaxed. If you purse your lips, your rolled R will come out too forceful.

4. Curl your tongue up very slightly just behind your top gums. Specifically the tip of your tongue should be loose and just below the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate: the alveolar ridge. The part of your mouth that contains the tooth sockets is the right place to be.

* Depending on the specific language, your tongue may be slightly touching your alveolar ridge, or not touching.

5. Tense your tongue, but leave the tip loose to vibrate. This sound is known as a trill because it is created with multiple vibrations.

6. Breathe out, allowing your tongue to vibrate with the passing air. This should produce somewhat of a "purring" sound.

* The rolling "R" sound is just the flutter of a tongue with the passing air, not a special curl or a fold.

* Some people find it easier to allow their tongue to vibrate against their mouth, while others prefer not to. Make sure that if you touch your teeth, do so lightly.

7. Try replacing the "r" with a "d" sound if your "r"s still aren't rolling. (For instance, the word "practice" would become "pdactice".) However, it won't sound right if you say the word slowly, or if the word begins with an "r".

8. Put your mouth in different positions and pronounce: ri, re, ra, ro, ru. Try to go through musical scales or a simple song singing "rrrrr."

9. Use a foreign language dictionary to practice words containing a rolled letter R.

10. Stick with it. If you're having a hard time, don't think it's because your mouth just wasn't built for it, unless you have any of the physical conditions described in the Warnings below. There is no genetic reason why a given person cannot roll their "r"s, rather it is a question of practice and developing tongue strength. So keep at it and eventually your "r"s will be perrrrrfect!

* Another method (common to singing lessons) to strengthen and prepare your tongue for the rolling of R's is surprisingly simple: practice repeating the following sounds in rapid succession, Tee-Dee-Va. Do this in your spare time, like while driving your car. In as little as a month, you'll be rolling R's with ease.

* The alveolar trill is difficult for native English speakers because, with the single exception of some Scottish dialects along with certain Welsh, Irish and Liverpudlian speakers (see Scouse,) there is no use of the alveolar trill, or many trills at all, in English. Many trills, the alveolar trill being no exception, use muscles in the tongue and mouth we, as native English speakers, simply do not use often for speech. It is the flexibility in your tongue and your ability to shape your inner mouth that make the trill possible.

* The trill is not easy for any language speakers! It is most often the last consonant sound learned by children in trill languages, and most languages that contain trills also contain words describing people who cannot do them.

o A famous examples is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), father of the October Revolution, founder and leader of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1923. Lenin was unable to create the alveolar trill, which is rather unfortunate when you are the leader of the Rossiyskaya Sotsial-Demokraticheskaya Rabochaya Partiya (the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party). So, don't feel so bad if you cannot get this easily.

(How Lenin learned to fake it...

1. Try saying "Dracula" and see if it helps you roll the R by putting a D in front of it. Touch the tip of your tongue to the bottom of your two top front teeth. Then when say "Dracula" and notice the tongue moves loosely but quickly from the tips of your teeth to the roof of your mouth.

2. More generally, first practice using the R in word-initial combinations as "dr-", "tr-", "br-", "pr-" - it is much easier to pronounce in those positions. Once you can do that, work on dropping the initial consonant.)

* The sound is made because of the Bernoulli's principle, an aspect of physics which defines the movement of fluids and gas over different shapes, and one of the principles of flight. In other words, the shape of your tongue will partially resemble an airplane wing, with the exhaled air passing over the top of the stiff, shaped lower tongue and vibrating the tip against the ridge like the flaps on an airplane wing.

* The specific trill consonant you need to master depends on the language you are learning. Trills are common in many world languages from those widely spoken to obscure dialects. Trills are present in Dutch, German, Spanish, Thai, Russian, Italian, Armenian, French, Slovenian, Faroese, Estonian, Finnish, Norwegian and Polish, Tagalog and Arabic, to name just a few. In each language different kinds of trills are made with different parts of the mouth. For example, in German the rolled R sounds is actually an Uvular trill, produced deeper in the throat.

* Use a mirror! Often, it is difficult to tell by feel alone whether your tongue is in the right place.

* Certain physical conditions inside the mouth can prevent you from vocalizing the alveolar trill. These include:

o The tongue tied (ankyloglossia inferior, or tight frenulum) condition refers to individuals where the piece of skin inside the mouth located below the tongue ?- where the tongue joins the lower palate ?- is too short and the mouth physically cannot reach the top palate for any dental fricatives.

o A cleft palate will also prevent an individual from being able to produce trills. The palate refers to the roof of the mouth. Humans have a hard palate which covers a soft palate. During fetal development some individuals do not fuse the two sides of their hidden soft palate together correctly, causing a cleft in the roof of the mouth that can prevent the vocalization of trills.

o Missing upper teeth can prevent trills.

o Other physical deformities as a result of injury can also make this difficult. For example, if your vocal cords are damaged you may have a harder time with trills than some others.

* Some people (especially those from countries where everyone can roll their "R"s with ease) may tell you that you could be genetically or physiologically unable to produce an alveolar trill. Unless you have one of the conditions listed above, this is absolutely not true. Rolling your "R"s is a little like touching your toes: both require flexibility and co-ordination in certain parts of the body which can be lost if not practised regularly. The vast majority of people who can't touch their toes do not suffer from an innate disability: they simply need to regain the suppleness in their hips, hamstrings, etc. Similarly, those who can't roll their "R"s can gain the ability to do so by increasing the flexibility of their tongues.

Good tips; I've had problems with this for as long as I've known Spanish (since, er, since the '70s), and would like to get better at it again as my nephew and I now speak a little Spanish to each other.

A teacher of mine once told a classmate to practise saying 'kedentebedood' faster and faster until it turned into 'krentenbrood' with two rolling r's.

It's a dutch word meaning raisin bread, but I guess it could work for non dutch speakers too. The first, the third and the fourth 'e' are a neutral vowel which we used to call 'shwa' at uni. I'm not sure if you can say that in english too.
The second 'e' is more like the spanish 'e' and the 'dood'/'brood' at the end sounds like 'dote'/'brote'.

This worked for my friend, so you might wanna give it a try...

Good luck anyway

Hey Doris! that's a great tip.

I just tried it out - and got it to work in a few minutes.

Brilliant!

If you want to listen to a great triller, listen to the wonderful and admirable José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Spain is so lucky to have him.

When you say a word with an "r," the tip of the tongue touches the palate behind the upper front teeth. Sometimes it's necessary to say a word silently to oneself, before actually vocalizing it, so the tongue is going where it should. I used to practice on the name Rodriguez.

When you say a word with an "r," the tip of the tongue touches the palate behind the upper front teeth. Sometimes it's necessary to say a word silently to oneself, before actually vocalizing it, so the tongue is going where it should. I used to practice on the name Rodriguez.

When you say a word with an "r," the tip of the tongue touches the palate behind the upper front teeth. Sometimes it's necessary to say a word silently to oneself, before actually vocalizing it, so the tongue is going where it should. I used to practice on the name Rodriguez.

Like for whistling, try touching the sides of your tongue against your two rows of upper pre-molars. Then, simultaneously touch the tip of your tongue between the roof of your mouth and upper incisors (the alveolar ridge, incidentally, that kind of rolled r is called the alveolar trill) and breath forcefully and heavily forcing the air through the tip of your tongue and alveolar ridge. You should feel the tip of your tongue flapping quickly against your alveolar ridge. Be sure to voice your breathing.

From Wikipedia

Features of the alveolar trill:

Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by vibrations of the tongue against the place of articulation.
Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.
Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Ha! I was trying to teach a friend of mine to roll her r's for hours and hours on end. We did the 'td' instead of 'r' trick, I drew detailed pictures were the tongue should be. After days, there was progress - I can now get her roll her 'r's when we're through with a bottle of wine or after a few beers.... but she still can't do it sober.

It's what makes shibboleths so effective.

You cannot say "carrramba" without rolling your "r"
If you do, drink more of dagmar's wine.

There's a tiny percentage of people who are physically incapable of rolling their r's. Of course this information should be kept from anyone trying to learn it (:

hi everyone,

i need some big help from any of you with my "r" pronountiation. ever since i was young, i never really learned how to pronounce it well. i've always been trying to fake it so that my front upper and lower teeth touch each other( so basically not using the tounge at all...dunno why i did this...=(

but i'm willing to learn now( that is if i'm capable of). how short is too short for your tounge size? like...if i force the air out, i can actually produce the "rrrrrr" sound with tounge. but then the problem is, i can't pronounce words as in just a vibrating "r". assuming my tounge is long enough, can any one tell me how to practice to say words with "r" ? i've tried so hard reading those words over and over and it's just not happening.

thanks

great tips!!!!! lots of practice that´s what´s most important!

My buddys mexican grandmother used to tell us white people couldn't roll their R's because they had forked tounges. It's an old folk lore.

I'm sorry

So Italians, Spanish, Bavarians, people speaking Low-German dialects etc etc are not white - but ...?

If they can roll there R's then they don't have forked tounges.

It would make sence that Germans could roll there R's and Brits could not.

Hah! You should hear me roll my "rrrrrr" - simply perfect !!