I know this will be totally random and unbelievable but I have been a native Spanish speaker for 17 years now, which is how old I am, and I was always bullied by people at my school because I didn't know how to pronounce the R correctly, watching this video supposedly to improve my Italian R I accidentally learnt how to pronounce the Spanish R correctly which has made me really happy and emotional knowing that nobody can make fun of me anymore. I'm really thankful because you have lifted a weight I've been carrying for years, and also want to thank you for teaching through TH-cam, people don't realize how helpful this platform can be if is used by people like you.
Bless you, other children can be so cruel. Your message touched my heart. So happy to hear you had a breakthrough experience. I agree it's a great video, many thanks, 💜
Don’t give up! You’ll get it. My boyfriend made fun of me for not being able to do it when singing an Italian song and he’s felt awful about it since. Now I’m learning to do it in secret. It’s taking me a while but I think I’m finally getting it a little bit! Just keep trying, it takes practice
I am an Italian speaker and i can't roll the r, i pronounce it like a french r or something like that, my father cannot too and he pronounce it like a v and it's very funny but it can be awkward at the same time haha but many italian people can't roll the r like us
are you considered to have a strong accent if you do the French uvular r? And judging by you last name your family or your dad's side might be from east Asia. Is it like a genetic thing?
Alessia T. Ciao Alessia ! My name is Lucinda I’m going to be Sixteen years old in a month and I’m an Italian girl who used to not be able to roll her R’s so you aren’t alone in this situation because I couldn’t roll my R’s until after the age of 9 . It just takes practice I’m able to do it now because I practiced a lot in School
Do you know if you're referring to it as that "disability" where you cannot pronounce the R properly? Where most of the people say it sounds like an L. I'm trying to find if there are names for it in other languages because I can't find a word for it in English...
I'm a French speaker learning Italian. I have been trying to roll the R but i still cannot do it. I feel like I'm doing a french R all the time. Still working on it.
I am so close to just dropping italian. My teacher presupposes us to roll the r and makes us repead words if we don't, but no matter how hard I work on it it wont work. I watched your video quite a few times and even though sometimes i feel like i'm close to rolling it i will go back to the english r that very moment. I just can't find anything that works for me. Any last tips?:(
Drop the teacher? Focusing on the pronunciation of a single sound is pretty pointless. The goal of a language should be to be understood and a weak R does not get in the way of that! Show this video to your teacher. It's a native Italian academic, who has a weak R. She's Italian. We understand her perfectly. No one care about her R. th-cam.com/video/Wr2YJoQeYsE/w-d-xo.html It's our job as teachers to inspire our students to fall in love with what we teach, and in the case of a language there soooo much to love!
+Italy Made Easy I wish dropping the teacher would be possible but sadly it isn't. I can indeed try again and show her your video idea but for her an r is necessary in speaking italian and for all I know she will keep on going with her lessons like always. The thing is that I had so much fun learning italian in the beginning but now I am straight up scared because I know I can't speak like we should. Well thank you for understanding, I'll just keep trying I guess, your videos are great to study! I just wish there would be some magical trick wich would make me roll my r.
I don't know whether this is gonna help at all. I've heard a lot of 'where to put your tongue while rolling your r's' instructions. I just couldn't. Then an Italian friend once told me that he couldn't either and that what he basically did was just bend his tongue on his upper left teeth and breathe. It wasn't exactly that strong rolling sound I wasn't expecting, but then again if you're thinking it's gonna make your whole throat vibrate, then you're probably thinking about Spanish. The Italian R is much softer and if you go to Rome, nobody actually roll their r's. When we think about the rolling R, we basically think about Spanish r's, but they're not the same thing. Italian R is much smoother, the real problem is gn or gl... WHAT? :D
lisa marie Ciao ! I’m an Italian girl from Pisa Italy and I learned to roll my R in my early teenage years I couldn’t do it until I was like 11 12 or 13 years old and now I’m Fifteen years old . Seriously I am a native speaker and I couldn’t roll R at least once in my life so don’t worry you’re not alone.
lisa marie Don't give up, I learned English as a second language 30 years ago. Because Spanish doesn't have the "z" sound I was never able to reproduce the sound until 2 years ago, I learned a trick from an accent reduction teacher. I still have difficulty especially with words that start with z but I continue to work on it.
Ciao! Io sono itlaiana, ma non riesco a pronunciare correttamente la "r"...sono capitata su questo canale per caso, e volevo ringraziarti perché il tuo tutorial mi sei stato più utile di tanti tutorial italiani per persone italiane! grazie ^_^
Yeah, I'm Italian and the hard 'r' is really not my thing. The mild 'r' is mostly an American flap T and it's really easy, but the other one is still very hard for me too. Don't worry, guys, just focus on vowel sounds, they're always the hardest ones to get right.
I am a new Italian learner. This R sound is my worst night mare. I tried everything to make the vibrating R,but nothing helps.Is it really understandable for Italians to understand Italian words without saying the rolled r sound?
Hi, I really appreciate your tutorial. I've been trying for awhile and I have had little to no improvement. I can do a single r roll but that's about it. My tongue is always stiff when I try to roll. I've heard that it's impossible for some people to roll their r. Is that true?
Ciao! Well, yes, it happens. It would be considered a "speech impediment" like you can have in English (for example pronouncing R as a W). Only a small percentage of the population is physically unable to produce a sound, but it can happen. In most cases though, it's just a matter of not knowing how to articulate a particular sound. Don't give up, I am sure you'll be able to pronounce R! And if you really can't, don't worry, it's not essential, you'll still be understood!
I have been learning Italian for s few months and wondered why I could sometimes roll it and sometimes I can't, I thought it depended on where in the word the R was but now I see it's more to do with the letters either side of it! Thanks so much!
It was so great! I had so much confidence...Italian words came out that I was shocked I had remembered. Our waitress spoke Italian and she was very sweet. I ordered everything in Italian and told her about my studies. She said my Italian was very good and that I had a cute accent! All the credit goes to you, Manu! GRAZIE MILLE!
Really helpful, thanks! It feels really unnatural at first, but I'm sure that'll change over time. This video definitely makes it a lot easier to learn!
I'm a new, italian learner, and let me tell you that I really like how you simplify everything. Additionally, your content is pretty well organized. I love it ❤❤ Although I'm a beginner, I started to sound a bit Italian, and that's hilarious 😂.So Please, keep up the great work !!👍
This helped me a lot last week. I can pronounce the r with out thinking about it. But then you were explaining how to make the L sound, I think it's different from person to person because I actually pronounce my L's by putting my tounge on my teeth. Sometimes my tounge even goes a little bit past my teeth
The “machine-gun” sound was perfect. As an American, I notice that I have to exhale just before and during the rolling my Italian R. If I don’t force air from my lungs-just before and during-the rolling of the R, it just doesn’t happen. Without this forcing of air, my tongue simply won’t roll the R’s. An analogy here is the sound a ballon makes when a child releases all the air from it at once. Without the pressure of the air passing through the opening of the balloon, no sound is produced. Tongues don’t vibrate by themselves. They need air to force the vibration. You might mention this. Also, I can roll R’s easily at the front of a word, but not so well when it’s in the middle. But this is pretty much as Italians do it, too. So, no biggie. My biggest problem is rolling the r with certain consonants, either before of after the R. Some R’s float out easily, but others, as in parla (the ahh sound before the R) are much harder to say the R, especially with having to produce an L sound just after the R. Having said this, your explanation and teaching here is well done.
Ciao! First of all, thank you for making these videos available on TH-cam for free, they've been really helpful so far! I've been learning Italian for about two years now, and one thing that's always been kind of a difficult part for me is the proper pronunciation of the R. It's not that I can't roll it, I'm perfectly able to. The thing is though, that I think I'm doing it wrong nevertheless. My rolled R sound comes from my throat, in a way that I can even do it whilst pressing my tongue against my bottom (not top) row of teeth. I personally can't tell much of a difference between my way and the proper one, but I'm under the impression that Italians might be able to. Watching your video, I've tried reproducing the sound, but it's ended in me rolling the R in my throat again. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound like the German or French R, but it still doesn't feel right. Have you ever encountered something like this and if so, do you know what I could do to improve?
I wanted to learn Spanish years ago, quickly gave up because of 'R' sound, now trying to learn Italian, not happy to see 'R' sound again BUT I could learn how to do it watching this video with several stops of practicing it for a couple of minutes!! I'm overjoyed :)) THANK YOU.
its interesting how certain scottish and irish accents roll their R's aswell! But as far as I'm aware neither the Irish nor Scottish languages have rolled 'r's.
Italy Made Easy ... I really, really need help I've been trying to roll my r's for 3 years... And still nothing I've been trying your method for 6 weeks!? What do I do by the way your videos are epic I learn so much especially since I'm 50% Italian!
Sono giunto qua cercando riconferme sulla pronuncia della erre. Anzi in realtà, stavo spiegando ad un'amica tedesca come fare una erre labiale e non gutturale, avevo bisogno di conferme. Guardando questo video ben spiegato, mi accorgo sol ora della difficiltà cui può essere sottoposto uno straniero che si trova di fronte a problemi, normalmente dimenticati da chi parla tutti i giorni l'italiano. good work anyway ;)
Thanks for the Video! I got an Italian background and speak the language, but my relatives mock me for not being able to roll the R. After this video, I could roll it the first time in my life. That made my day. Thanks :-)
Grazie Mille, Manu! I believe I've got it pretty well! I'm trying out my Italian for the first time tonight at my first Italian meet up group. Non vedo l'ora!
Thank you so much for this video. Very clear. Gave me a lot to work on. Not sure if i've got it right yet, or if it is enough to pronounce words correctly, but better than before I watched this.
Grazie mille! Very helpful information. I've found that Italian is more easily spoken with the tongue up while English is spoken with the tongue down. A sound that is very difficult for me is when R and L are together, such as 'parlo, parli, parla, etc.'
try and look at it in a different way. R and L are closely related, so having a bit of trouble when both sounds are there is understandable, but don't forget that their similar nature should make it easy to pronounce both. Try pronouncing (with an Italian accent) sounds such as 'PALARA" and "PAROLA" over and over again and as quickly as possible. Once you got it, trick yourself by removing the A between L and R of PALARA and the O between R and L of PAROLA. Good luck!
This is very helpful and these exercises are very good. I've been trying to learn Spanish and trying to roll my R's forever and I think I'm finally getting it. Thanks.
I can roll the r quite well most of the time but some combinations catch me out for example, "il ragazzo' i have to make an "a" sound going from the L to the R, is this normal? and if I try and say "Roma" I make an almost "h" exhaling sound before I roll the R, is this normal too? thanks in advance
Thanks - very practical and useful. I was getting there but this has helped! A couple of other things I find useful for the "r" and for Italian in general. First, I consciously relax the tip of the tongue - I find that when I speak English the tip of the tongue is held quite rigid. Second, I consciously move my lips and jaw more - I note in the video that even when you're speaking English you move the front of your mouth much more than native English speakers, and I see this in most Italian speakers. My Italian pronunciation has improved since I realised this.
I can roll my r at the beginning of word and between vowels, but i can not pronounce it after consonants or before consonants, like i can say: Roma and marito but not: pronto or arte But the worst problem of mine is that i confuse L and R sound a lot when i can’t read the words, but when i write and speak but with writing less than speaking, and then say things like tilamisu or Borogna (both already happened once 😬) :D much love from Japan 🇯🇵 to Italy 🇮🇹
Watched a ton of videos prior to this, but this is the first one that worked! Using the frontal vowel sounds was the trick for me because I wasn’t so focused on making the r sound! Thanks!
But where does the R-sound come from? When I get my tongue to vibrate behind my teeth there is just the sound of vibrating air :D It's impossible for me to do my usual R sound from the throat at the same time as vibrating the tongue. I have gone over yout alphabet video, esp where you say "Don't worry about the (rrr) sound" and (rrr) definitely have a sound there - I think, or do you actually say "re"? Does R always need a vowel to get some sound? (I've addressed this to Manu, but of course any advice is very welcome!)
Italian R does not have the throat component. You shouldn't be trying to have throat and teeth sound at the same time! R is not always followed by vowels, no. For example we have the word FORTE, or ARMADIO etc
I'm a native Spanish speaker and I couldn't pronounce R when I was a child, it is a very common problem. Making bubbles in a cup with a straw was helpful. Great video.
Now I'm curious, what's the sound you cannot pronounce well because you're from Rome? This video helped me a lot because of the suggestion to practice the r with the u because it's a frontal vowel. I was so happy when I managed to say "trullo" with a good r :'D It will still take me a lot of practice but I feel like there's hope for me
my mom is full blood Italian and my dad is American so being Italianò is fun and all but when you know the language but can’t roll your r’s your cugino’s will probably make fun of you, but just know that Italians can understand you even if you don’t roll your r’s! So don’t feel left out!!
I LOVE the RRRs and it has such a lovely sound!! I think there is a zen to this ...but truthfully also, practice in Spanish did help me here. But really focusing on achieving a positive outcome (YOUR AIM) will make it much easier to achieve a fairly good one AT LEAST. That is also could psychoneurolinguistics as in programming oneself to succeed rather than fail. YOU CAN DO THIS ! And this teacher Manu is brilliant, I am in awe and have much gratitude Grazie mille.
I can kind of do it but I'm also not sure if it actually sounds really weird to other people (since your voice sounds different in your head than in real life) It kind of sounds like I just have spit in my mouth D: The only word it sounds decent on is three. It's easiest on ri and hardest on ro, surprisingly. I kind of say a d/r sound while doing it but it sounds way better than before. Can't do it for more than a split second though. I'm also moving my tongue from the back of the teeth to the arch and I don't think that's how you're supposed to do it but it's the only thing that's worked for me.
I just started to study Italian today, but I have always been to roll my r's like that ave always come naturally to me. I have a tougher time doing the trills., But it sounds very nice when he does it.
Well, Italian R is different from French R, but a lot of Italians do not have an Italian R. They have what we call "R francese" or "R moscia". So, while you won't be doing an "Italian R" when using your French R, it won't cause any problems and people won't think it's wrong or anything like that!
I've read several of the comments, but not all. So maybe someone has asked you this already. What is the sound that Romans don't make?? is it the gia? and that's why they say 'magna' for mangia? I'm just guessing. Please let me know. :-)
When you watch the video only to see Manu, since your "R" is perfect cause you're polish :D To all of you guys, don't give up! You can do it! It took me 3 years to learn how to pronounce your "Th" sound, but I did it! ;)
Hi! Well, you don't really have to roll an Italian R with it's not double or at the beginning of a word. For words like ARMADIO, PERCHÉ all that matters is that your R still comes from the front of your mouth, not the throat
I've been trying it for the past 2 weeks and still don't get it right, only when it's a tr (sometimes). I do roll it, but it's not frontal. Not sure if the difference can actually be heard. Awesome video btw, I'll check out more of them!
Ciao! How about you record a video of yourself doing the R and send it to me? Just make it private on TH-cam and I'll let you know what I think and help you out a bit if it's not perfect yet?
Thank you! This is exactly what I'm looking for, I would like to know when to roll and when not to. I still have a question, should I roll the r when is preceded by a vowel and followed by a aconsonant? Such as the first r in "parlare"?
I come from an Italian- American family, and until I was a teenager, I thought my cousin, Mario’s name was, Maddio ! I was shocked when I saw his name in writing! 🤷🏼♀️😬 But I still secretly cringe, when I hear people pronounce the name, Mario , as Mar-E-Oh(😫)
I've been trying my hand at this over the last few weeks, I finally got it to the point where my tongue can vibrate against the roof of my mouth but I can't vocalize anything and it just makes me sound like Gollum 😂
I’m a Filipino and I don’t know why but I can mimic easily foreign sounds like for example: French “r”, rolling r, german “ch” and “sch”.... Does it have something to do with my native language. Is Filipino a neutral one?
My native language is Portuguese and we have a trilled r, but ours isn't like the Italian one, I can roll my R like Italians but it becomes very hard when I have to do it in a big sentence 😂
I have heard that northern Italians, such as those in Venice, have a very different way of speaking than southern or central Italians. I need to learn a Venetian accent for an acting role but I can't roll my Rs. Can't even come close. I'm hoping maybe they don't trill their Rs as much in Venice!
My family is from the venice region and they have a completely different dialect to other Italian speakers, so many differences in words 🤷♀️ eg. qua, instead of qui
May I ask a question? I apologize if already answered; do we roll from the throat or the tongue? Thank you so much, helene :)) (I am a French native speaker)
Never give up!!! Have you ever tried putting a pen or pencil in your teeth and forcing your tongue to make the "R" sound? Watch the following video titled: "Finally an accurate explanation of how to trill the Spanish R"
I know this will be totally random and unbelievable but I have been a native Spanish speaker for 17 years now, which is how old I am, and I was always bullied by people at my school because I didn't know how to pronounce the R correctly, watching this video supposedly to improve my Italian R I accidentally learnt how to pronounce the Spanish R correctly which has made me really happy and emotional knowing that nobody can make fun of me anymore.
I'm really thankful because you have lifted a weight I've been carrying for years, and also want to thank you for teaching through TH-cam, people don't realize how helpful this platform can be if is used by people like you.
So happy for having helped you! Keep up following us!! 😘
Bless you, other children can be so cruel. Your message touched my heart. So happy to hear you had a breakthrough experience.
I agree it's a great video, many thanks, 💜
Is there a difference between the Spanish 'r' and the Italian one?? To me, they both sound the same
It’s impossible. I’ve tried everything. It’s just impossible.
I am half-Italian so it makes me sad I can't.
Don’t give up! You’ll get it. My boyfriend made fun of me for not being able to do it when singing an Italian song and he’s felt awful about it since. Now I’m learning to do it in secret. It’s taking me a while but I think I’m finally getting it a little bit! Just keep trying, it takes practice
*Learns languages for 10 years*
*Cannot roll Rs*
*Watches video*
*Can roll Rs*
Very happy to hear!!! Brava!!
I cant stop myself laughing each time I make a stupid noise so much fun
Imagine a class full of people doing it XD
I am an Italian speaker and i can't roll the r, i pronounce it like a french r or something like that, my father cannot too and he pronounce it like a v and it's very funny but it can be awkward at the same time haha but many italian people can't roll the r like us
are you considered to have a strong accent if you do the French uvular r? And judging by you last name your family or your dad's side might be from east Asia. Is it like a genetic thing?
Alessia T. Ciao Alessia !
My name is Lucinda I’m going to be Sixteen years old in a month and I’m an Italian girl who used to not be able to roll her R’s so you aren’t alone in this situation because I couldn’t roll my R’s until after the age of 9 . It just takes practice
I’m able to do it now because I practiced a lot in School
Do you know if you're referring to it as that "disability" where you cannot pronounce the R properly? Where most of the people say it sounds like an L. I'm trying to find if there are names for it in other languages because I can't find a word for it in English...
Man, I love Italian language
è fantastico
I have a fat tongue it just doesn't freaking vibrate! Ugh!!
I can do the French r but not the Italian r :(
Me too :/ I've been trying for weeks
gwynylee I can do the Italian r but not French r
I think I've watched every single R trill video on youtube and still nothing so... am I doomed?
My family’s Italian American and I’m the only one who can’t roll their Rs so I’m gonna learn it to prove ‘em wrong
I'm a French speaker learning Italian. I have been trying to roll the R but i still cannot do it. I feel like I'm doing a french R all the time. Still working on it.
Hi Hailey B.! Thanks for watching this video! Have you practiced rolling the "R"? How was it?
I am so close to just dropping italian. My teacher presupposes us to roll the r and makes us repead words if we don't, but no matter how hard I work on it it wont work. I watched your video quite a few times and even though sometimes i feel like i'm close to rolling it i will go back to the english r that very moment. I just can't find anything that works for me. Any last tips?:(
Drop the teacher? Focusing on the pronunciation of a single sound is pretty pointless. The goal of a language should be to be understood and a weak R does not get in the way of that!
Show this video to your teacher. It's a native Italian academic, who has a weak R. She's Italian. We understand her perfectly. No one care about her R.
th-cam.com/video/Wr2YJoQeYsE/w-d-xo.html
It's our job as teachers to inspire our students to fall in love with what we teach, and in the case of a language there soooo much to love!
+Italy Made Easy I wish dropping the teacher would be possible but sadly it isn't. I can indeed try again and show her your video idea but for her an r is necessary in speaking italian and for all I know she will keep on going with her lessons like always. The thing is that I had so much fun learning italian in the beginning but now I am straight up scared because I know I can't speak like we should. Well thank you for understanding, I'll just keep trying I guess, your videos are great to study! I just wish there would be some magical trick wich would make me roll my r.
I don't know whether this is gonna help at all. I've heard a lot of 'where to put your tongue while rolling your r's' instructions. I just couldn't. Then an Italian friend once told me that he couldn't either and that what he basically did was just bend his tongue on his upper left teeth and breathe. It wasn't exactly that strong rolling sound I wasn't expecting, but then again if you're thinking it's gonna make your whole throat vibrate, then you're probably thinking about Spanish. The Italian R is much softer and if you go to Rome, nobody actually roll their r's. When we think about the rolling R, we basically think about Spanish r's, but they're not the same thing. Italian R is much smoother, the real problem is gn or gl... WHAT? :D
lisa marie Ciao !
I’m an Italian girl from Pisa Italy and I learned to roll my R in my early teenage years I couldn’t do it until I was like 11 12 or 13 years old and now I’m Fifteen years old .
Seriously I am a native speaker and I couldn’t roll R at least once in my life so don’t worry you’re not alone.
lisa marie Don't give up, I learned English as a second language 30 years ago. Because Spanish doesn't have the "z" sound I was never able to reproduce the sound until 2 years ago, I learned a trick from an accent reduction teacher. I still have difficulty especially with words that start with z but I continue to work on it.
Ciao! Io sono itlaiana, ma non riesco a pronunciare correttamente la "r"...sono capitata su questo canale per caso, e volevo ringraziarti perché il tuo tutorial mi sei stato più utile di tanti tutorial italiani per persone italiane! grazie ^_^
Yeah, I'm Italian and the hard 'r' is really not my thing. The mild 'r' is mostly an American flap T and it's really easy, but the other one is still very hard for me too. Don't worry, guys, just focus on vowel sounds, they're always the hardest ones to get right.
Perfetto !! grazie mille! rolling my "r's" now. You have explained this very well! Thank you so much! Ciao !
same for me
I am a new Italian learner. This R sound is my worst night mare. I tried everything to make the vibrating R,but nothing helps.Is it really understandable for Italians to understand Italian words without saying the rolled r sound?
Hi, I really appreciate your tutorial. I've been trying for awhile and I have had little to no improvement. I can do a single r roll but that's about it. My tongue is always stiff when I try to roll. I've heard that it's impossible for some people to roll their r. Is that true?
Ciao! Well, yes, it happens. It would be considered a "speech impediment" like you can have in English (for example pronouncing R as a W). Only a small percentage of the population is physically unable to produce a sound, but it can happen. In most cases though, it's just a matter of not knowing how to articulate a particular sound. Don't give up, I am sure you'll be able to pronounce R! And if you really can't, don't worry, it's not essential, you'll still be understood!
I have been learning Italian for s few months and wondered why I could sometimes roll it and sometimes I can't, I thought it depended on where in the word the R was but now I see it's more to do with the letters either side of it! Thanks so much!
It was so great! I had so much confidence...Italian words came out that I was shocked I had remembered. Our waitress spoke Italian and she was very sweet. I ordered everything in Italian and told her about my studies. She said my Italian was very good and that I had a cute accent! All the credit goes to you, Manu! GRAZIE MILLE!
eh eh! I'd say the credit goes to YOU!!! Ma grazie mille!!!
io sono fortunato perché sono Arabo 😊 io posso pronunciare tutti le alphapeti facilemente 👌
Really helpful, thanks! It feels really unnatural at first, but I'm sure that'll change over time. This video definitely makes it a lot easier to learn!
being a native spanish speaker helps a lot lmao
Thanks for putting this up. The vowels exercise has almost got me there. Frustrating though.
I'm a new, italian learner, and let me tell you that I really like how you simplify everything. Additionally, your content is pretty well organized. I love it ❤❤ Although I'm a beginner, I started to sound a bit Italian, and that's hilarious 😂.So Please, keep up the great work !!👍
I'm afraid of people making fun of me for not being able to do it.
This helped me a lot last week. I can pronounce the r with out thinking about it. But then you were explaining how to make the L sound, I think it's different from person to person because I actually pronounce my L's by putting my tounge on my teeth. Sometimes my tounge even goes a little bit past my teeth
I couldn't roll my R's until I was 13. I'm currently 18. Help 😂😂😂😂
i can roll my r for some words but i cant do in general without pronoucing a word like you can how can i do it without pronoucing words?
I literally cannot do it. It is impossible.
This gave me a stepping stone. Thank you.
That's wonderful to hear!! Happy it helped! Ciao!
I'm new to Italian and I love you're videos. They help so much!
Everytime I try, R sound like "dr..."
The “machine-gun” sound was perfect. As an American, I notice that I have to exhale just before and during the rolling my Italian R. If I don’t force air from my lungs-just before and during-the rolling of the R, it just doesn’t happen. Without this forcing of air, my tongue simply won’t roll the R’s. An analogy here is the sound a ballon makes when a child releases all the air from it at once. Without the pressure of the air passing through the opening of the balloon, no sound is produced. Tongues don’t vibrate by themselves. They need air to force the vibration. You might mention this. Also, I can roll R’s easily at the front of a word, but not so well when it’s in the middle. But this is pretty much as Italians do it, too. So, no biggie.
My biggest problem is rolling the r with certain consonants, either before of after the R. Some R’s float out easily, but others, as in parla (the ahh sound before the R) are much harder to say the R, especially with having to produce an L sound just after the R.
Having said this, your explanation and teaching here is well done.
Ciao! First of all, thank you for making these videos available on TH-cam for free, they've been really helpful so far!
I've been learning Italian for about two years now, and one thing that's always been kind of a difficult part for me is the proper pronunciation of the R. It's not that I can't roll it, I'm perfectly able to. The thing is though, that I think I'm doing it wrong nevertheless. My rolled R sound comes from my throat, in a way that I can even do it whilst pressing my tongue against my bottom (not top) row of teeth. I personally can't tell much of a difference between my way and the proper one, but I'm under the impression that Italians might be able to.
Watching your video, I've tried reproducing the sound, but it's ended in me rolling the R in my throat again. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound like the German or French R, but it still doesn't feel right.
Have you ever encountered something like this and if so, do you know what I could do to improve?
Could you perhaps record a video of you saying a few words in Italian (with R) and I'll give you feedback?
I wanted to learn Spanish years ago, quickly gave up because of 'R' sound, now trying to learn Italian, not happy to see 'R' sound again BUT I could learn how to do it watching this video with several stops of practicing it for a couple of minutes!! I'm overjoyed :)) THANK YOU.
Thanks bro, now I can harrass my friends more fluently :D
English speaker only . Always been able to trill my R's. 🤣
its interesting how certain scottish and irish accents roll their R's aswell! But as far as I'm aware neither the Irish nor Scottish languages have rolled 'r's.
You're an amazing teacher!
Grazie Paula!
thank you so much! the "ali" and "ari" exercise is what helped me to finally get it!
omg i love ur machine gun example! i finally could speak it out!
We Scottish also roll our Rrrs! 😀😀
Italy Made Easy ... I really, really need help I've been trying to roll my r's for 3 years... And still nothing I've been trying your method for 6 weeks!? What do I do by the way your videos are epic I learn so much especially since I'm 50% Italian!
Ciao! Ho una domanda, come suona R nelle parole “grazie” e “torna” perchè il suono è tra un vocale e un consonante,
Grazie!
Sono giunto qua cercando riconferme sulla pronuncia della erre. Anzi in realtà, stavo spiegando ad un'amica tedesca come fare una erre labiale e non gutturale, avevo bisogno di conferme. Guardando questo video ben spiegato, mi accorgo sol ora della difficiltà cui può essere sottoposto uno straniero che si trova di fronte a problemi, normalmente dimenticati da chi parla tutti i giorni l'italiano. good work anyway ;)
Thanks for the Video! I got an Italian background and speak the language, but my relatives mock me for not being able to roll the R. After this video, I could roll it the first time in my life. That made my day. Thanks :-)
holy crap! I'm 33 and I've never been able to do this, since I took Spanish in 7th grade. 12 minutes into this video and I'm getting the hang of it!
OH MY WORD I CAN DO IT! THANK YOU SO MUCH :)
Thanks to you, kathy s!
Grazie Mille, Manu! I believe I've got it pretty well! I'm trying out my Italian for the first time tonight at my first Italian meet up group. Non vedo l'ora!
WOW! In bocca al lupo (good luck) at the meetup! So exciting!!! Let me know how it goes!
Thank you so much for this video. Very clear. Gave me a lot to work on.
Not sure if i've got it right yet, or if it is enough to pronounce words correctly, but better than before I watched this.
Grazie mille, Damo Neimad! Happy to be helping!
Grazie mille! Very helpful information. I've found that Italian is more easily spoken with the tongue up while English is spoken with the tongue down. A sound that is very difficult for me is when R and L are together, such as 'parlo, parli, parla, etc.'
try and look at it in a different way. R and L are closely related, so having a bit of trouble when both sounds are there is understandable, but don't forget that their similar nature should make it easy to pronounce both. Try pronouncing (with an Italian accent) sounds such as 'PALARA" and "PAROLA" over and over again and as quickly as possible. Once you got it, trick yourself by removing the A between L and R of PALARA and the O between R and L of PAROLA. Good luck!
This is very helpful and these exercises are very good. I've been trying to learn Spanish and trying to roll my R's forever and I think I'm finally getting it. Thanks.
😄
My dogs think I’m growling at them. This helped though - especially the part about trying different vowels. Roo works best for me. It’s a good start!
I can roll the r quite well most of the time but some combinations catch me out for example, "il ragazzo' i have to make an "a" sound going from the L to the R, is this normal? and if I try and say "Roma" I make an almost "h" exhaling sound before I roll the R, is this normal too? thanks in advance
Yes, dear. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of patience!
- Italy Made Easy Staff -
Thanks - very practical and useful. I was getting there but this has helped!
A couple of other things I find useful for the "r" and for Italian in general.
First, I consciously relax the tip of the tongue - I find that when I speak English the tip of the tongue is held quite rigid.
Second, I consciously move my lips and jaw more - I note in the video that even when you're speaking English you move the front of your mouth much more than native English speakers, and I see this in most Italian speakers. My Italian pronunciation has improved since I realised this.
I can roll my r at the beginning of word and between vowels, but i can not pronounce it after consonants or before consonants, like i can say:
Roma and marito
but not:
pronto or arte
But the worst problem of mine is that i confuse L and R sound a lot when i can’t read the words, but when i write and speak but with writing less than speaking, and then say things like tilamisu or Borogna (both already happened once 😬) :D much love from Japan 🇯🇵 to Italy 🇮🇹
I am never going to be able to roll my r's😢😢😢
Watched a ton of videos prior to this, but this is the first one that worked! Using the frontal vowel sounds was the trick for me because I wasn’t so focused on making the r sound! Thanks!
so far your video has been the most helpful with rolling my R's. I can't keep it consistent but it's slowly getting there :D Thank you
But where does the R-sound come from?
When I get my tongue to vibrate behind my teeth there is just the sound of vibrating air :D It's impossible for me to do my usual R sound from the throat at the same time as vibrating the tongue. I have gone over yout alphabet video, esp where you say "Don't worry about the (rrr) sound" and (rrr) definitely have a sound there - I think, or do you actually say "re"? Does R always need a vowel to get some sound?
(I've addressed this to Manu, but of course any advice is very welcome!)
Italian R does not have the throat component. You shouldn't be trying to have throat and teeth sound at the same time!
R is not always followed by vowels, no. For example we have the word FORTE, or ARMADIO etc
i have to learn italian and this saved my ass because i could not roll my r's
ifyou are scottish you can roll your rs no problem
thank you so much, I can roll my r's now. "roo" really helped me.
Great! 😍
The best discussion on the internet about this. Thank you
Grazie mille! Thanks for saying that!! ^_^
What if my trills are too wild, like a lawn mower vibrating through my whole face. How do I make it more calm.
I'm a native Spanish speaker and I couldn't pronounce R when I was a child, it is a very common problem.
Making bubbles in a cup with a straw was helpful.
Great video.
Now I'm curious, what's the sound you cannot pronounce well because you're from Rome?
This video helped me a lot because of the suggestion to practice the r with the u because it's a frontal vowel. I was so happy when I managed to say "trullo" with a good r :'D It will still take me a lot of practice but I feel like there's hope for me
my mom is full blood Italian and my dad is American so being Italianò is fun and all but when you know the language but can’t roll your r’s your cugino’s will probably make fun of you, but just know that Italians can understand you even if you don’t roll your r’s! So don’t feel left out!!
2:05 Yeah! Another reason (actually justification) for choosing to learn Italian instead of Spanish! (I can't roll my tongue)
Oh my god I think I did it! Maybe not though, but it gives me hope!
Amazing same way as I learned English phonetics
Man, you are magic, I spent literally hours before finding your video, and suddenly, there it is "Rrrrrroma" Thanks a lot :)
I can do marito and roma just fine because it's just one roll, but I can't seem to do the multiple rolls in guerra, or the machine gun.
+Adrian Thompson me too have you managed too now?
È fantastico, grazie!
I did it first one Teacher!! that I roll my r
Bravissimo!!
I'm Indonesian, and i do speak English too, so it's not a big problem for me lol hehehe.
I LOVE the RRRs and it has such a lovely sound!! I think there is a zen to this ...but truthfully also, practice in Spanish did help me here. But really focusing on achieving a positive outcome (YOUR AIM) will make it much easier to achieve a fairly good one AT LEAST. That is also could psychoneurolinguistics as in programming oneself to succeed rather than fail. YOU CAN DO THIS ! And this teacher Manu is brilliant, I am in awe and have much gratitude Grazie mille.
Thank you very much for you kind words!! ❤️
I can kind of do it but I'm also not sure if it actually sounds really weird to other people (since your voice sounds different in your head than in real life) It kind of sounds like I just have spit in my mouth D: The only word it sounds decent on is three. It's easiest on ri and hardest on ro, surprisingly. I kind of say a d/r sound while doing it but it sounds way better than before. Can't do it for more than a split second though. I'm also moving my tongue from the back of the teeth to the arch and I don't think that's how you're supposed to do it but it's the only thing that's worked for me.
I'm sure it will happen soon!!! With time you'll find words where the R just happens naturally!
I just started to study Italian today, but I have always been to roll my r's like that ave always come naturally to me. I have a tougher time doing the trills., But it sounds very nice when he does it.
👍 😊
Hablo español... ¿Qué rayos hago aquí?
Hello I'm french and if I correctly understood I can pronounce the italian "r" like the "r" in french ?
Well, Italian R is different from French R, but a lot of Italians do not have an Italian R. They have what we call "R francese" or "R moscia".
So, while you won't be doing an "Italian R" when using your French R, it won't cause any problems and people won't think it's wrong or anything like that!
I learned it with the gun example:)
I've read several of the comments, but not all. So maybe someone has asked you this already. What is the sound that Romans don't make?? is it the gia? and that's why they say 'magna' for mangia? I'm just guessing. Please let me know. :-)
Our GLI is very weak, almost an "i"!! FAMIGLIA -> FAMI-YA
When you watch the video only to see Manu, since your "R" is perfect cause you're polish :D To all of you guys, don't give up! You can do it! It took me 3 years to learn how to pronounce your "Th" sound, but I did it! ;)
This is endearing to me, thank you!
Hello! Can you help me? I can roll my R, but I can't say it shorter. I mean I can say rrrrrr, but I can't say just r. What should I do?
Hi! Well, you don't really have to roll an Italian R with it's not double or at the beginning of a word. For words like ARMADIO, PERCHÉ all that matters is that your R still comes from the front of your mouth, not the throat
I've been trying it for the past 2 weeks and still don't get it right, only when it's a tr (sometimes). I do roll it, but it's not frontal. Not sure if the difference can actually be heard.
Awesome video btw, I'll check out more of them!
Ciao! How about you record a video of yourself doing the R and send it to me? Just make it private on TH-cam and I'll let you know what I think and help you out a bit if it's not perfect yet?
Io ho l’erre alla francese e sono di bari quello è il problema e non riesco a pronunciare ma forse sto imparando
i kinda can do it but for just a short period of time... like half a sec...i cant keep it that long like you do, ... thats frustrating lol
Ciao Eduardo! Half a second sounds great! And look, you don't need to stretch the R sound that much anyways! I say "you got it'!!
Thank you! This is exactly what I'm looking for, I would like to know when to roll and when not to. I still have a question, should I roll the r when is preceded by a vowel and followed by a aconsonant? Such as the first r in "parlare"?
Great! 😊We are so happy that you liked this video! Keep following us! 😘
Awesome video thank you SOOO MUCH i can now trill my r's and i cant even say normal r's like jonathan ross
Great effort Josh!!! happy to hear that!!! Bravo!!!
I come from an Italian- American family, and until I was a teenager, I thought my cousin, Mario’s name was, Maddio ! I was shocked when I saw his name in writing! 🤷🏼♀️😬
But I still secretly cringe, when I hear people pronounce the name, Mario , as Mar-E-Oh(😫)
I've been trying my hand at this over the last few weeks, I finally got it to the point where my tongue can vibrate against the roof of my mouth but I can't vocalize anything and it just makes me sound like Gollum 😂
Don't give up!!! 😊
Is the Italian *R* the same as the Spanish trilled *R* and the one in most, if not all, Slavic languages?
Italian R is a bit softer than the Spanish. It does became similiar to the Spanish R when it's doubled, in the middle a word, like GUERRA, CARRO etc.
I’m a Filipino and I don’t know why but I can mimic easily foreign sounds like for example: French “r”, rolling r, german “ch” and “sch”....
Does it have something to do with my native language. Is Filipino a neutral one?
My native language is Portuguese and we have a trilled r, but ours isn't like the Italian one, I can roll my R like Italians but it becomes very hard when I have to do it in a big sentence 😂
Strange, that many people have difficulties. Many, if not most, European languages have the same rolled "r" - finnish, latvian, estonian, russian...
I have heard that northern Italians, such as those in Venice, have a very different way of speaking than southern or central Italians. I need to learn a Venetian accent for an acting role but I can't roll my Rs. Can't even come close. I'm hoping maybe they don't trill their Rs as much in Venice!
How interesting! You surely need practice 😉
My family is from the venice region and they have a completely different dialect to other Italian speakers, so many differences in words 🤷♀️ eg. qua, instead of qui
I’m learning Russian, and the R’s are sharp and fast trill. I can roll some words like утро, but some, I cannot.
May I ask a question? I apologize if already answered; do we roll from the throat or the tongue? Thank you so much, helene :)) (I am a French native speaker)
Never give up!!! Have you ever tried putting a pen or pencil in your teeth and forcing your tongue to make the "R" sound? Watch the following video titled: "Finally an accurate explanation of how to trill the Spanish R"