I'm trying to learn how to roll my R's but I can't figure it out to save my life.

How did you learn?

http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1969801

http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=1969801

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Why do you want to imitate a fucking mexican? They cant pronounce english words correctly so why should you have to abide by the rules of spanish?

Because unlike a "fucking mexican", some of us take pride in being more accurate in our pronunciation.

what an utterly ignorant thing to say

Try an R sound like "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" then let your relaxed tongue touch the very front of your hard palette (top of your mouth just behind your teeth) so that the air your lungs are expelling will cause it to vibrate against your teeth.

Hope that helps mate.

Certain "r's" that come after certain syllables cause the r's to roll. I'm too tired to think just what...

I'm pretty sure I posted a nice phrase recently? I didn't write it down & can't for the life of me recall what or where. Hmmm...

I'm a native speaker of spanish so I guess I don't remember how I learned.

The tongue motion is kind of in between making a 'duh' and a 'tuh' sound, if that helps you conceptualize it at all.

I hope you figure it out man, it's a beautiful language.

I'm excellent at rolling my rs
though I've never really come across a word in which I'd need to do so ^o)

I've found that I must form my mouth into a 'big smile' shape. Either naturally from saying certain words or on purpose to rrrrollll the feeelthy rrrrrs.

If I don't shape my mouth so, there is not enough freedom for the tongue to flap wildly enough.

There are different kinds of rolled R's. You produce them differently. The way I roll my R's for Afrikaans is quite different from the way I do it for Indonesian. What language are you learning?

i lulzd

i roll e

I don't use it in english, but I roll R's in polish. occasionally i mess up... it can be a pain in the ass to pronounce sometimes.

Pretend you're 3 years old and making machine gun noises.

Hone as necessary.

It worked for me.

I don't pronounce my R's.

I had this problem when I was younger. I actually figured out a fix for it when I lived in Canada (I had to know it for Norwegian). I had figured out how to roll my Rs, but I couldn't make it automatic (a problem you might encounter). Instead of pronouncing Rs I'd curl my tounge far back in my mouth and make a wierd sound, which still sounded better then the English R. Since I was moving back to Norway, where I grew up, I thought it was about time to get it automatic. Basically what I did was try to say the English R instead, as it was an easier point to work from, and after lots of muscle training it is finally automatic. That is going to be your biggest problem, to train the muscles required to roll your Rs.

That just makes you sound like a sheep.

I find that as an Anglish speaker, speaking in an accent automatically rolllls the R's.

I can never think of an example when put on the spot. Yet let me start talking like a wee Sco' or a Southern Refrito Master & rrrrrrolllling starts.

I learned to roll my R's just by listening and singing along to Rammstein. :p

Somehow, I just picked it up.
I've been taking Spanish on and off for the past decade.
It kind of happened from just watching so much Spanish television.

The past two years, I sat down in a class and took it seriously.

I think for one, you need to realize that it IS NOT that cat like purr.
It IS NOT the machine gun sound.


Here is an instance.

Put the tip of your tongue behind the back of the top row of your teeth.

Keep it there.

Now, while doing that, pronounce the "pe" in perro.

What you should be doing is keeping your tongue behind your teeth still and your lips should be touching each other making a "peh" sound.

Now as you release your lips you move the lower middle part of your tongue underneath the roof of your mouth. Notice that you have to take the tip of your tongue away from the back of the teeth in order to do this.

As you are putting your part of the tongue in that position, you need to transition to another syllable of the word "perro."

The syllable sound will be the rr sound.

Now, after mixing the rr sound while having the tongue in that position, let go of the position, and just say "ro."

One trick, while saying row, is to move the tip of the tongue and touch it to the lower right side of your teeth for the more gritty, blurred "ro" sound.

As you get better, you'll be able to bend your tounge (the lower middle part) above the roof of the mouth so that it does not exactly touch the roof. The part is kind of like rolling a barrel up a hill and the pushing it off the top. You can push it off the top, because there is a small amount of space between the ground floor and the ceiling. It seems as though you have to push the back of the tounge a little further back into the mouth in order to do this.

Zay's guide is somewhat good, too.
I think my version is a good starting ground, though.

Let your tongue flap in your mouth as you expel air.

it's easy, say "gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r", you know like a lion roar, then keep with the "r-r-r-r-r-r-r", now what happens while your saying that is that for some reason your tonge curls up just a bit but doesn't touch your mouth, so while still saying it try uncurling your toung to make it straight and then push it forward to touch the ridge on the top of the mouth just behind the teeth, that should work

When I (I don't speak Spanish) put on the Mexican accent I find that when I replace the "i" in words like his with an "e"? It makes the rrrrrr's in the following word rolllll.

I theenk tranny Zek would be heem really happy.

^^^ Not my best work. :( The "e" changes the shape of the mouth into more of a "big smile" & frees the tongue in a way that an "i" doesn't. I just can't (pronounce the "a" in can't with the Mexican/Any accent) roll if my mouth she ees wrong shaped.

I finally decided to reply to this thread I totally forgot about.

I actually put off learning how to roll my r's because I thought I could sneak by in other languages by not using them.

Well tonight I decided to practice and I think i'm making a breakthrough.

I still don't know if i'm actually rolling or my is making a gagging sound, just feel a weird vibration.

My tounge is on the roof of my mouth, here's a sound file.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/13042528fefdd528

Sorry for crappy host, and bad voice, it's 8am here.

Speaking Spanish.

That was total failure, but you should keep trying.

I can roll my Rs cos I lived in France when I was a kid so it's just natural, but i've just been doing it now, and aside from sounding weird, i've realised how bloody hard it is to "explain" it.

When you do a short cough clearing of the throat, like you're about the hock off a big load of phlegm (hey, it's practical advice :p) your tongue kinda retreats backwards and downwards, to the base of your mouth. Not jammed down there, kinda.... hovering. To roll your Rs, try moving it forwards from there, and then moving the tip slightly upwards at an angle. The rest is for your throat to do; a kind of vibration that once you start it just goes on and on, and forms a delicious burbling which just rolls out of your mouth. You have to really "vibrate" the back of your mouth, whilst keeping the rest of your mouth rather still.

SO, you're about to say "vraiment". Of course, you start mouth pursed for the V, teeth forwards, and then the tongue goes back and down and just ROLLLLLL the r out, not in a rediculous way, but just enough to avoid going "vreyment".... it's gota be "vrrrrraiiiiiiiimen". I'm sure this makes little sense, so really the best thing is to just speak French with a native French speaker, and listen n try and copy. Good luck, perspective rollers.

There are different types of rolling Rs, might as well point that out. The dialectical norwegian one for example is the same one used in French, while the main norwegian one I'm not sure what other languages use, except for the scandinavian ones.

people have trouble rolling their r's? i honestly had no idea. it came totally natural for me. just flap your tongue.

Why do you want to imitate a fucking mexican? They cant pronounce english words correctly so why should you have to abide by the rules of spanish?

too bad the majority of languages on this planet use some form of trill, eh? idiot.

I have this problem with Russian and Latvian.

Try immitating a pigeon, you know when they make that cooing purring noise? Prrrrrrrggh?
When you've got that down right you'll have your pronounciation done.