Learn Spanish On Your Own » trill http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog Spanish learning tips, lessons, product reviews, and more Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:12:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Learn To Trill Spanish ‘rr’ http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/07/13/learn-to-trill-spanish-rr/ http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2009/07/13/learn-to-trill-spanish-rr/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:00:02 +0000 Kyle http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/?p=332 Spanish is generally an easy language to pronounce with one exception:  the infamous trilled double-r sound.  The rr trill has confounded students of Spanish for generations.  It must have taken me several weeks of practicing to get it right, and I probably still mess it up more often than not.  The good news is that you can generally get away with either faking it or not trilling at all; however, if you really want to sound like a native and spend a lot of time in the Spanish-speaking world, you really should learn to trill properly.

The Mechanics

The RR is formed by flapping the tongue against the front roof of your mouth.  The mechanics of it are really quite simple, it just requires a lot of practice to get right.

  • Imagine your tongue flapping flapping like a flag in a strong wind
  • Now try purring like a cat with your tongue flapping like that flag

A Challenging Practice Phrase

Once you can kinda-sorta form the proper sound with your tongue, there’s nothing left to do but practice.  Following is a Spanish tongue twister with practically every word containing a trilled rr sound.  If you can manage to recite this phrase correctly, you’ve no doubt mastered the trill.  Good luck and remember, it will take hours of practice to master.

Erre con Erre Cigarro
Erre con Erre Barril
Rápido corre el carro
Repleto de ferro en el ferrocarril

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