Start by saying the letter R, in English, out loud. Pay attention to how your mouth moves while you say the letter R. You’ll notice that your tongue does not touch the back of your teeth, it sort of just hangs there in mid-air. Now say the letters T and D, in English, out loud. Pay attention to how your mouth moves when you say T and D. You’ll notice that your tongue touches the back of your upper front teeth — almost like your tongue is pushing your teeth forward. The placement of your tongue while you say T and D in English is the same placement you need to perfect when attempting to roll your Rs. But in addition to your tongue simply touching the back of your front teeth, it also has to vibrate. It’s this vibration that creates the trill or rolling sound. The important part of this step is to recognize how your mouth and tongue should move in order to roll your Rs. When you move forward and start practicing the actual rolling R sound, remember to pay attention to your tongue placement.
This step, like all others, requires practice. To help you gain success with this step, you might want to try actually saying the sounds associated with the letters T and D in English. As you’re saying either the T or D sounds, add some Rs to the end of the sound so you’re making the sounds “drrr” and “trrr. ” Breathe out while doing this and practice getting your tongue to vibrate. You can also try saying English words that start with D, T, B, or P and have an R as the second letter in the word (e. g. Dracula, train, bronze, pretty). By practicing words that include D, T, B, P and an R you’re essentially practicing a rolling R because your tongue is in the correct position. The key is to get your tongue to vibrate when saying the R so it rolls.
In the case of these two words, your tongue goes to the back of your front teeth when you say the second syllable of the word — when you say the sounds produced by “tter” and “dder. " You can say one of the words, or both of them. For example, you can say “butter butter butter ladder ladder ladder” over and over again, or any combination of the two words. Keep repeating the words faster and faster. The faster you say the words, the higher the chance that your tongue will vibrate. Eventually the “tter” and “dder” parts of the words should take on the trilling sound of a rolling R.
It may take weeks before you’re able to move to this step and successfully roll an R. Be patient, it’s not easy. The key to this step is to be able to produce a successful rolled R without the need to add extra letters or words. Once you’re able to successfully roll one R, keep practicing over and over. It should eventually become second nature such that you aren’t even thinking about what your mouth is doing when you roll an R.
Use the phrase ”tee dee va” to loosen your tongue. Say this phrase over and over again as quickly as you can. Remember to keep your tongue relaxed and loose inside your mouth. Your tongue is a muscle, so you may need to practice quite a bit before you can naturally relax it enough to roll an R.
The English translation of this tongue twister is “The dog of san Roque has no tail, because Ramón Ramirez stole it. " There are only certain times when the rolled (or trilled) R is used in Spanish: when it is the first letter of a word (e. g. Roque or rabo); or when there is a double R in the middle of a word (e. g. perro). When saying the rhyme, these are the only times you should be rolling the R. When the letter R appears in a Spanish word by itself in the middle of the word, it shouldn’t be rolled. Instead the sound produced should sound similar to the sound “dd” would make in English. If you need help pronouncing the single R properly, try listening to this video as an example — http://www. studyspanish. com/pronunciation/letter_r. htm. If it helps, start by practicing only the words that produce the rolling R sound. Once you’re able to say the individual words properly, move onto saying the entire rhyme. Repeat the rhyme over and over again, getting faster and faster each time. The key is to be able to say all the words, including the rolling R sound, without proactively thinking about the fact that you’re rolling your Rs.
In English this tongue twister translates to “R with R cigar, R with R barrel, swift roll the wagons, carrying sugar of the train. " Alternate version 1 — “Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril. Rápido corren los carros, detrás del ferrocarril. ”[7] X Research source Alternate version 2 — “Erre con erre guitarra, erre con erre barril. Mira que rápido ruedan, las ruedas del ferrocarril. ” There are only certain times when the rolled (or trilled) R is used in Spanish: when it is the first letter of a word (e. g. Roque or rabo); or when there is a double R in the middle of a word (e. g. perro). When saying the tongue twister, these are the only times you should be rolling the R. Remember that when the letter R appears in a Spanish word by itself in the middle of the word, it shouldn’t be rolled. Instead the sound produced should sound similar to the sound “dd” would make in English. If you need help pronouncing the single R properly, try listening to this video as an example — http://www. studyspanish. com/pronunciation/letter_r. htm. As you get faster and faster with the tongue twister, the rolling R sound should come naturally.
Alternate version 1 — “Tres tristes tigres triscaban trigo en un trigal. Un tigre, dos tigres, tres tigres trigaban en un trigal. ¿Qué tigre trigaba más? Todos trigaban igual. ” Alternate version 2 — “En tres tristes trastos de trigo, tres tristes tigres comen trigo. Comen trigo, tres tristes tigres, en tres tristes trastos de trigo. ” Again, you only need to produce a rolling R sound when the first letter of a word is an R (e. g. Roque or rabo) or when there is a double R in the middle of a word (e. g. perro). If the letter R appears in a Spanish word by itself in the middle of the word, it shouldn’t be rolled. Instead it should sound something like “dd” would make in English. If you need help pronouncing the single R properly, try listening to this video as an example — http://www. studyspanish. com/pronunciation/letter_r. htm. As you get faster and faster with the tongue twister, the rolling R sound should come naturally.
Clear your throat. This should sound something like “ckh. ” While clearing your throat, turn the “ckh” sound into a “grrr” sound. The key to these sounds is making the roof of your mouth vibrate. Say the letter L or N and pay attention to the place where your tongue ends up at the end of the letter. This spot is your alveolar ridge. Put your tongue on your alveolar ridge and say the words “girl” and “hurl” without removing your tongue from the ridge. Use the ‘clear your throat’ routine to start the word and turn the vibration into a rolled R.
Start by blowing a regular raspberry. Add your voice to the sound of the raspberry. This can be done by simply using your vocal cords to make noise. As you’re blowing a raspberry with vocal sound, lower your jaw as part as possible without stopping the raspberry. Once your jaw is in a lower position, move your tongue to the alveolar ridge without changing anything else you’re doing. At this point your should be rolling an R. If not, try the method again until you can end with a rolling R.
Take a deep breath. Say the word “vision. ” Make the middle of the word (which sounds like “zh”) last 3-4 seconds. As you extend the “zh” sound over those 3-4 seconds, increase the volume of the sound. The last part of the word (the ’n’) should be very short, but should also continue to increase in volume. At this point you should be quite loud. Add the word “dream” to create a phrase. There should be less than a second between finishing the word “vision” and starting the word “dream. ” The “dr” part of the word “dream” should be the climax of the phrase. When you get to the “dr” part of the word “dream,” relax your tongue and make it go floppy. Since you’re speaking very loudly now, the breath coming out of your mouth should make your tongue vibrate. Let this happen (and keep your tongue relaxed). If successful, it should sound like you’re saying something like “dagadaga. " You may need to try this several times before you get to the point where you’re making a good rolling R sound.
