JaredC
Substitute letter for rolled 'rr'? Ok, after years of trying to produce this sound, I have determined that because of my tongue tie ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankyloglossia ) it is almost impossible for me to roll my rr's. My question is: for those people that cannot pronounce the rr sound, what is the most acceptable substitute? A regular r, a French rolled r (using the back of the tongue), or something else? Is this a common problem for native Spanish speakers? Thank you for your suggestions!Supongo que debo añadir esta pregunta en español! A pesar de muchos años tratando de producir el 'rrr' sonido, creo que es imposible porque tengo 'tongue tie' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankyloglossia ). Mi pregunta es: si es imposible producir esto sonido, cual es el sonido segundo mejor para usar? Un 'r' normal, un 'r' francés, o algún otra opción? Es esta problema común entre los hablantes nativos de español?
Oct 22, 2014 1:23 AM
Answers · 9
3
Well, bologically talking, you have the same organs that most native speakers of any language in the world, that means that you actually can pronounce any language with a perfect native accent... but, if you have decided to stop trying, I would suggest to stay with the English "r" since it is understandable. For the native Spanish speakers it is much easier to distinguish an English "r" than a French "r", which sounds like the Spanish "g", so it is confusing. The English "r" sounds like a drink person speaking Spanish, so if you pronounce it that way, people will immediately link it to the actual Spanish "r" sound. If you want to pretend you are a native speaker, just pretend you are drunk and the "r" will fit perfectly (provided your grammar and other phonetics are at least 90% correct).
October 22, 2014
3
In Mexico I think the common name of this is "frenillo" and it's very normal in many kids. They can't make the sound of "rr" and they say it like "d". They do exercises, they put horizontally a pen in their mouth on their tongue and try to make the sound, for example they tell this tongue-twister "erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril, rápido corren los carros cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril" and they practice very much. I think that works, because, despite there are many children with this problem, the adults say well this sound. However, if you can produce this sound, you can use English "r" o French "r" and probably we can understand what you say, but it won't sound natural, so if you just want communicate something, don't worry, but if you want speak like a native, nothing replaces the sound.
October 22, 2014
If you have no issues with the "l" sound in your native language then you should be able to reproduce the "rr" sound in Spanish, the tip position is essentially the same. A good approximation would be the "tt" sound (US English) in words like liTTle or caTTle, but instead of a flap you just keep the tongue in the position and trill it with the airstream.
October 22, 2014
Keep on practicing,and probably after some exercises,you`ll be able to pronounce it correctly. As some have told you,it's a common problem that some people have,and they can't pronounce it correctly,so native speakers mostly pronounce it similar to a "d",so the best you can do is practice,say tongue twisters as fast as you can: "Tres tristes tigras tragaban trigo en un trigal,en un trigal tragaban trigo tres tristes tigres" this one is better for the combination "tr" in which you pronounce an alveolar r similar to that of American english "laDDer",and to pronounce the rolled or trilled r,say "Erre con erre cigarro,erre con erre barril,rapido corren los carros cargados de azucar del ferrocarril".
October 24, 2014
Un amigo tenía un problema similar pero cuando era niño!, la solución fue que le cortaron el frenillo. Otra solución que le recomendaron era hacer ejercicios con la lengua para alargar el frenillo, en youtube están.
October 22, 2014
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