Practicing the Spanish r: multiple vibrante /r̄/. Part 1
Practicing the Spanish r sound in a fun way isn’t difficult.
In Spanish, there are two types of r: the multiple vibrante /r̄/ and the simple vibrante /r/.
Today, we’re going to get in touch with the multiple vibrante /r̄/, which is one of the phonemes that presents the most difficulty for Spanish-speaking students who are francophones, anglophones, lusophones, Germans, Italians, Chinese… And we’re going to do it with a tongue twister, which is a word game that helps improve linguistic skills and verbal agility.
Instructions for pronouncing the multiple vibrante r correctly:
- open your mouth
- separate your teeth
- place the tip of your tongue at the front of your palate and make it vibrate several times
- put some patience and good humor into it… and we assure you that you’ll achieve it!
In this position, the tongue has to bounce several times at the front of the palate
How is the multiple vibrant r written?
- Between two vowels, we write rr (cigarra, carro).
- At the beginning of a word, we write a single r (Rosa Rosales).
- After n, l, and s, we also write a single r (sonrojar, alrededor).
And now, watch the video Practica la /r̄/ española con trabalenguas. Parte 1, where Françoise and Guillaume, French students of Jarcha Español, practice this phoneme, and then give it a try yourself.
This is the text: Rosa Rosales cortó una rosa. ¡Qué roja la rosa de Rosa Rosales!
If you’ve found this helpful or would like to suggest practicing other aspects of Spanish phonetics, please leave your comment.
Thank you very much!
