# Rolling your R's - Teach me how. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947 "2001-08-24T17:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/1 "2001-08-24T17:09:21Z")
Okay, for a while now, I’ve wanted to learn Spanish. The trouble is, I can’t roll my R’s. This becomes a problem when a word with a single R could be confused with another similar word with two R’s if not pronounced properly. My question is: Can I learn how to do this? I’ve asked people who speak Spanish, both native speakers and those who learned it as a second language. Most say they “just do it”, i.e., they can’t remember how they learned and it just comes naturally. I’m looking for someone like me, who couldn’t roll their R’s and was taught. I’d rrrrrrrrrreally appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/2 "2001-08-24T17:23:06Z")
Try this: don’t think of it as an ‘r’. Think of it as a really long ‘d’ with a little bit of an ‘r’ at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/3 "2001-08-24T18:42:05Z")
Thanks, **Ethilrist** , I’ll try to think of it this way. Additional suggestions, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/4 "2001-08-24T18:48:19Z")
I just do it so I can’t help you there. I can tell you a kid who can’t roll his Rs would have a very hard time in school as he’d be made fun of by the other kids… Come to think about it… why is it called “rolling” the R? Rolling suggests something going smoothly… shouldn’t it be “rattling” the r? ---
**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/5 "2001-08-24T18:51:55Z")
Place your tounge on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth - with as little pressure as possible (very gently) Then blow with your tounge in this position - if you blow har denough your the air will fore it’s way betwwen your tounge and your mouth forcing your tounge to vibrate producing the rolling sound. Then make an ahhhh sound at the same time. Put a standard r sound at the begining of this. Hopefully this will produce the desired result 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/6 "2001-08-24T18:52:56Z")
Obviously, modify this once you get the hang of it. 1. Make “duck lips”. 2. Open your jaw slightly. 3. Place the sides of your tongue so that it touches the underside of your top teeth, but leave the tip of your tongue not touching anything. 4. Take a deep breath and blow out forcefully. Try and get your tongue to make a flapping noise. Then start adding the traditional “r” noise. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/7 "2001-08-24T18:56:11Z")
1. Do this at your desk at work so the person in the cube next to you has really interesting stories to tell people at the vending machines tomorrow morning. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/8 "2001-08-24T19:00:54Z")
There are native spanish speakers who cannot roll their R’s either. they are considered to have a speech impediment by their fellow native language speakers, just as we would consider a lisp or stutter to be an impediment. There is a growing body of evidence that the inability to roll the R has a neurologic basis. I learned this because my daughter is a polyglot; speaking spanish, russian, japanese and latin, in addition to english. It’s been very frustrating for her to be fluent in spanish, but be unable to roll her R’s. She’s tried all of the above-mentioned, and even considered seeing a speech therapist but finally decided to accept her limitations. FTR, I cannot roll my R’s either, but my wife and other daughter can, and take great joy in pissing us both off by doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Amazing\_Magic-Gro\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e95f7d/32.png) [@Amazing\_Magic-Gro\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Magic-Gro_Monster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/9 "2001-08-24T19:05:59Z")
Is the rolling “R” in Spanish different from the rolling “R” in German? I’m used to doing a rolling “R” in German by using the base of the tongue and have simply assumed my Spanish rr’s were passable? ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/10 "2001-08-24T19:08:19Z")
Speech therapy can help. When I travelled to Slovakia this summer, one of our hosts was a speech therapist at the university there. She had me repeat certain sounds over and over - and also used the back of my toothbrush to move my tongue back and forth while she was doing it. I still can’t “r-r-r-r-r-r” like most people can. But I could eventually pronounce words like “dobry” (good) properly. I do have to think hard about what I’m saying or I’ll forget and mispronounce something. She also told me that her son had to have his tongue cut when he was a child. I guess that’s another way to be able to roll your r’s. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/11 "2001-08-24T19:19:54Z")
> [@](#): > > he also told me that her son had to have his tongue cut when he was a child. I guess that’s another way to be able to roll your r’s. Good point, there was a well publicised event recently where a Welsh choir boy decided to have this operation so that he could preform solo’s It may be your tounge is too big . . I have no idea how to tell though. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/12 "2001-08-24T20:14:00Z")
My doctor recommended the tongue cutting, too! He said that I might end up with some sort of speach difficulties if they didn’t do it. The piece he was considering slicing is the bit on the underside that connects the toingue to the floor of the mouth. Fortunately, my mother is a sensible woman and since I wasn’t having any difficulty speaking,refused to let him perform the procedure. I still can’t roll my Rs, though, except once, when I was really drunk. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/13 "2001-08-24T23:30:46Z")
I took Spanish in high school and had a difficult time rolling my “r’s.” (Well, I have a difficult time with the English “r” also.) What has worked passably for me is to actually roll the tip of your tongue over your hard palata toward the top of your top teeth and at the same time pronouncing “r” English style. ---
**Author:** ![jaimest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/48db29/32.png) [@jaimest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaimest)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/14 "2001-08-24T23:57:39Z")
I once had a Spanish professor from Lima, Peru - he couldn’t roll an R to save his life. Maybe the influence of Native American phonemes there had an effect, but I thought Lima was supposedly more “Spanish” than the interior, well I’m not a linguist. I speak Spanish with a Chilean dialect, from my father being Chilean. So I can give the R a very slight roll. But I can’t do the extremely trilled R that Mexican ranchero singers can do. To me the Puerto Rican rr is more like a French r, or even a strong h. So rolling the R one way or another isn’t a big deal - as long as the initial R or double RR is longer than a single R sound - just practice saying “pero” and then “perro” until you get distinct r sounds. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-your-rs-teach-me-how/77947/15 "2001-08-25T04:14:45Z")
Even though some people can’t do the trilled “r” sound, some can do it but only with extensive practice. When I took my first Spanish class, I practiced the trilled “r” sound constantly. For weeks upon weeks it seemed, even though I practiced many times a day, that I would never be able to do it. Finally, after about 3 months of daily practice, I was able to do the trilled “r” sound. Guess the moral of the story is that even though some people absolutely cannot roll “r’s”, it still could be good to try and see.