Bloody hell! I've been struggling with this for years in various attempts to speak Italian and Spanish, and failed. I got the single-r sound down pat, but couldn't trill. Your "force more air through" has my tongue vibrating at last! I might sound like Chewbacca, but it's a start. Thanks for the tip!
I was able to learn how to roll my Rs in a single day from this tutorial after not being able to do it for 20+ years. Excellent tutorial! The part at the end about losing your inhibitions is extremely helpful! I find alcohol helps with this for your first time.
Such a great tutorial! And I sooo appreciate you correctly identifying the flap, as a linguistics major in university and now a speech pathologist :) There’s a Russian teacher of the Russian language on here and they said that the Russian rolled “r” is different than the Spanish one. Have you heard this?
Oh my god, I've had a combined total of 12 years of Spanish classes (albeit with very little retention), and I've been positioning my tongue wrong the whole time! I'm still not great but I feel like I'm finally getting it now. Thank you!
Richard Benton It's still hard for us Brits, especially with the skipping of letters (I.E. Butter becomes Bu'er) haha. Do you have any other words or even a list of word that begin with Rs (maybe some Latin?) that could be of good practice please? Good video btw!
Richard Benton Thank u so much u have totally changed my life. I have no learned to roll my R thanks to you and your video. I still need lots of practice but I'm on the right path. Again thank u so much
...and after you've learned how to pronunce the rolled "R" try some funny italian tongue-twisters with many "R"s. ;) - Orrore, orrore! Un ramarro verde su un muro marrone. - Remo rema sul Reno con remi di rame. - Pure Pelé partì per il Perù però perì per il puré. :D hahah...have fun!!! Greetings from Italy
This has been the most helpful video I've found so far so thank you! If nothing else you at least made it fun. I'm from England but it's not exactly going too far out of my way to use the American pronunciation of 'butter' or 'udder' which definitely helped.
im chinese i say mandarin,i use butter to practice .this is first day ,and my colleagues thick im carzy while saying butter over n over at work ,hope it can work for me
it really works ,thank you very much .only this video you posted on youtube make me trill the r sound .thank you really.but i still have problem to solve.still working on it
Русский язык -- мой родной, но моим студентам-носителям английского языка Ваше видео, несомненно, поможет, так как оно сделано с позиции англоговорящего.
My issue is that I seem to only feel a vibration in the back/middle of my tongue and not the tip. What could I be doing wrong? When I try to pull my tongue back to pull the tip away from my teeth, I feel like I'm going to swallow my tongue. lol
I think I know the problem. You're doing a gutteral "r," like the Standard French or Standard German. I'm not sure of your native language/dialect, but say "d" quickly over and over. You should be able to get that. BTW for some the gutteral "r" is easier. There are native Russian speakers, for example, who never learned the trilled r as children and say the gutteral one instead.
+Richard Benton I'm from the US and I can only do the gutteral R. If you look into how to say "Good morning" in Arabic; you'll here the gutteral sound first and most will roll their R at the end. I can't do this for the life of me! I can say it perfectly aside from the slight trilling R. "Saba7 il 7'eer". I appreciate the help!
Hi Richard. Your description of the Russian palletized R is what I think I am doing. I can pretty easily make my tongue vibrate if I lift the back of my tongue as if I'm hissing like a cat, or saying "KH". However I cannot for the life of me vibrate my tongue without doing this. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to make this transition? Thanks!
Thanks for asking, Dan. If I'm understanding the problem, I think you may need to get used to producing the sound by breathing harder. The trilled-r takes a lot of air, and we non-nativves have trouble directing that air correctly. So as the air disperses, the tongue does not flap. Breath harder, and the r will trill more easily. Please let me know if this doesn't help, and I'll try to think of some more approaches.
It doesn't seem that blowing harder does much anything different. In general I've been trying to do a properly trilled R for decades and have watched countless videos and read a lot of material. What might help is a painfully detailed description of what you do differently between the palletized R (back of throat up, soft palette down, as in saying "kh") and a proper and more clear trilled R. I've often thought that it was just the shape of my mouth combined with a short stubby tongue that prevents me from doing it. Thanks.
The difference is aiming the airflow. Think of a balloon. It's full of air, but when the air is pushed through the small, elastic hole, it flaps. If you restrict it more, it flaps faster, making a higher-pitched sound. When you pronounce the palatalized "r", you already started narrowing the airflow at the back of your mouth (soft palate). The air is already strong and narrow by the time it reaches the tip of your tongue. When you pronounce the hard/unpalatalized "r", only your tongue restricts the airflow. A hard "r" restricts the airflow by adhering the sides of the tongue to the upper molars. When the tongue is stuck to the side teeth, and the middle of the tongue is cupped, and the tip is not quite touching alveolar ridge, the air has a narrow point to flow through. That narrow flow flutters the tongue.
Outstanding, thanks! I'll keep all of that in mind. It helps hearing things like this from someone who was at first unable to do it but then figured it out.
My cat actually taught me how to roll my R's, however I still have issues when using it in a sentence. It always causes me to pause my sentence for moment. I'm in the process of learning Russian and would like any tips anyone would have for me. Thanks! Edit: The exhaling while speaking has already pushed me a solid step forward, very helpful!
Richard Benton Thank u so much for uploding this video. I live in Sweden and se have many rolled R in our language and I always feels so embarrassed when I can't pronounced it. I have not learned how to roll my R yet but with the tequnice you used I really hope that it will help me. Do you have any other tips and word you can practice on?
Hello! Every time I try to push air through my tongue, I end up rolling the back of my throat instead... what else should I do? (Or what can I do to stop that from happening?)
I speak dutch, and i have no idea if i am doing it right i feel my tong vibrate a litte bit but not that much. I always use the german/french R but dutch people use the spanish R. DO you have any tips for me that would work?
Good question. Let me know. I imagine it might be a bit different if you're from the East or West. The Ontarians I know don't make the same flap as US speakers, but Westerners seem to more.
So, I've been working on this for about a month and I can get the rolled are but now I can't figure out how to insert it into words. For example the double R in carro, and also words that end with a rolled R , like recoger. Can you give advice for that?
Glad to hear you're on the right track! You learned how to say it isolated after a month. Keep practicing it inside and at the end of words. At first, exaggerate, like I do in the video. Remember, little kids play with words and sounds when they learn how to talk. You can do the same.
Thank you! When I realized this, I felt much better when I couldn't do it. Since it took years for Russian children to learn, I felt ok that it took me a while.
I just don't have the patience to learn it or the consistency like I'll try for 2 mins tops and just say ehh heck with out and probably won't try again like more than a month
i notice that when you expell the air out of your mouth,and you make "a le"sound ,these two movement almost happened at the same time .but how can i do it at the same time ?
hi how are you .i can roll my r but i can't mak it natrually when r is in the middle of the word and when i want to roll my trilling r .i need to pause a little while to start it .oh no .do you have any tips on practice? thank you a lot
Aaaaaaaaarrrggghh, it is DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!! I need to be able to do this, and have been frustrated my whole life that i can't. my question is: because i was tongue tied as an infant, and my frenum was clipped, could my inability to be able to trill my R's be because it wasn't clipped enough?
I'm not sure. Does that have an effect on the nerves in the tip of the tongue? You may be able to find out if you research what happens to the speech of those who underwent this same operation and who are native speakers of these languages. How do they pronounce their "trilled R"?
It is absolutely impossible for me to do this. Relaxing my tongue doesn't help, it's as relaxed as possible, which isn't much at all. Fucking no chance.
Feel the inside of your mouth and notice how there is a flat region behind the teeth that opens up into a larger area of your mouth. The ridge that marks the boundary between the two is called the "alveolar ridge." The tip of the tongue should tap the alveolar ridge.
I'm Spanish and have been trying to learn how to do this since I learned to speak.... I still dont know how to do it help me my family make fun of me for it oh look its the girl who swallows her tongue
+Richard Benton I don't quite know but my family is from England and Ireland but this video is the closest to having me say the "r" sound so thanks but I can't really get it
