Making the double r sound in Spanish?

Question

I teach high school Spanish in Oklahoma, USA. Does anyone know of a way to teach HOW to roll your tongue to make the double r sound, like in aburrido or perro? I've got some students who can't do it naturally. I've asked a speech-pathology friend of mine and she didn't know. It's not a sound in the English language per se, so I don't know what to do. I can do it myself but have no clue how to help my students.

Answer 1

I pretended to imitate a motorboat when I took spanish years ago. It works in German too!!!

The kids just have to learn how to shut the motorboat off so they don't sound like a broken record.

Answer 2

Spanish R Sound

Answer 3

Ah, this is a favorite topic of mine because I struggled for a long time to roll my r's and thought I'd never be able to, but eventually I learned. I wrote a bit about it on my language blog a while back:

http://languagelover.blogspot.com/2005/05/rolling-rs.html

Believe it or not, there are actually different ways of rolling the r's; my husband does it at the tip of his tongue behind his teeth (which I think is more natural and correct), whereas I do it more near the roof of my mouth. Previous suggestions about first learning to "flip" the "r" (pronounce it like a "d", very fast) are the first step. Also, one thing I've noticed is that it's much easier to do the "rr" after particular vowels like a, o, and u. "Ahorro" is the easiest word containing "rr" for me, whereas even after speaking Spanish for years I occasionally can't say "perro".

I also believe it helps just to HEAR the "rr" a lot. There's some subconscious brain process that teaches us how to imitate sounds that we hear (how does a child learn to pronounce "rr"?). Encourage your students to listen to lots of Spanish radio and TV.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Try this.

Quickly say "pedo" (with the vowel in 'fed' or 'red'). Notice how your tongue every-so-quickly touches the alveolar ridge (behind your upper teeth) as a 'tap', only to ever-so-quickly move away.

Now for the hard part. Instead of making a D, make an R, all the while keeping your tongue in that tapped-D position -- and learn to do it rapidly.

You can practice making trills by rapidly vibrating your tongue in the D-position, then try and convert that to an R. The double-r sound, though, is not a trill, tho' that's how lots of Nortes do it. It's a single swift sound, just like English D.

Answer 5

See my answer to this question:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ap5MjLqT5qDfdKx3ctcWnvQjzKIX?qid=1006022701762

And just to respond to the previous answerer:
Many sounds can be trilled, but when Spanish speakers do it they touch the tongue to the bump just behind the teeth (this is called the alveolar ridge). Trilling the tongue in any other place (on the roof of your mouth or against the soft palate, for example) is not the same sound.

Answer 6

Mark Twain O: alveolar ridge? Awesome! Thanks for a new word phrase LOL
I go along with everything you say, but the tongue needs to move a little forward to just behind the front teeth to make it sound like an R instead of D. Great job tho!
Perishedmemories: Are you accepting dates?

Answer 7

Place the top of your tongue in opposition to the roof of your mouth while you're making the R sound. You will uncover that you just ought to blow by way of your tongue inflicting your tongue to vibrate. That will have to supply you the sound you're watching for. Just takes just a little train.

Answer 8

OK this may sound very weird but you may want to try using a 'talking like a pirate' day kind of thing. With the hype about the pirates of the Caribbean movie the word 'Arr' has become common knowledge which means if they can say Arr and talk like a pirate they can say carro.

Who knows? It might work!

Answer 9

say the name "Eddy".

that's a start, to get the feel of where the tongue should be.

the double r, is a variation on this. I'm doing it right now and it's a matter of asphirating/ blowing out a huff of air while relaxing the tongue and letting it vibrate.

Answer 10

ha ha ha

that rr sound in Spanish is also occured in Indonesia, and some of my Indonesian friend even can`t rolled their tounge.

try this.
put a honey or chocholate at the palatine, and ask them vibrate their tounge to lick their honey.

hope that`s help