5:00 ah the inevitable moment in seemingly every trilled R video where you've been correctly doing everything they ask until finally they're like, "and then you go rrrrrrrrr" and I just go "pfftththdhdhdhththth" 😑
EXACTLY. I was really excited about the level of detail in this video for the first few minutes. Then they're like, "and then you just trill your tongue." GAHHHHHH
I can actually trill my rs. But when I followed the steps in this video and then built up pressure in my mouth, it didn't work for me. So I don't know if there's something missing, or if I'm trilling my rs wrong for Spanish. Being able to purr like a cat helps though - maybe having cats growing up helped :)
Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth where retroflex English D goes but the very edges of the sides of your tongue are against your teeth from the tooth behind your incisors all the way to the place where the tip of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth about the distance of the tip of your thumb between your tongue and the front two teeth kline you're locking your thumbnail while your fingerprint presses against those two teeth) and the bottom half of your tongue is flattened and relaxed like when you say "La". Move the tip of your tongue between the back of your front to teeth to where it should properly be for Spanish R while you keep the side edges of your tongue against the front half of your top teeth until you start to feel a vibration on the roof of your mouth while keeping your tongue relaxed. It's like trying to make the childish raspberry noise with your lips and tongue, blowing hard outwardly to say, "THpTHpTH!" You're doing that but with only the top tip against the roof of your mouth while the front ⅓ or so of the edges of the sides of your tongue are against your teeth. That makes a hard to make sound that turns into a Spanish R when enough air forces your tongue out of the way and then varying the pressure will cause it to flap the same way as when you make the raspberry noise.
I’ve been waiting for this information for a long time. Retroflex was the word I needed I think, nobody ever mentioned that. I can do a fake Indian accent so I can trill my r’s, it was always that easy! But I never knew I could. Thanks
MISSING TECHNIQUE: This did it for me instantly after months trying: Lie in bed and tilt your head completely back. This makes your tongue rest against the roof of your mouth. Much easier to get the tongue into position while leaving it relaxed.
EDIT: One day, a few weeks ago, I randomly got it. And I'm honestly a bit frustrated about it because I have no idea what I did differently, if I even did in the first place. I had hoped that if the time ever came where I did it, I'd be able to give some tips to people who were also struggling to help them figure it out too. My problem was that I would have my tongue in the right spot, but the air would either push my tongue out of the way with at most one "tap" or I'd be trying to compensate with extra pressure and my tongue wouldn't allow any air past. I was practicing with the former outcome, and then just *got* it completely randomly when I wasn't even trying. I wish I had some secret info for everyone in the replies who are struggling but I'm afraid not. At this point, I can only produce the isolated sound, and can't do it voiced yet. And it's not 100% perfect either. Given that I can't get it every time I try (it's more like 90%), I do think it's a case of getting all the steps perfect just once and then being able to finally progress from there. Good luck everyone. (Jan '24) Nope, I still can't get my tongue to vibrate lol. This video did definitely help with my tongue placement but no matter how much I try I can never get it to actually vibrate... closest I've gotten is when I've sneezed! Hopefully I can get it eventually lol
Don't worry, it takes time, it took me 4 days of just trying for hours until I finally got it right, just keep practicing, and you will get it in due time
@@janboreczek3045 each person takes a different amount of time, just remember that it's possible and that the overwhelming majority of the Spanish world can do it. Also I think I watched around a billion videos explaining how to trill, and found some good tongue twisters to practice. After a while of not being able to do it i got one by mistake, and tried to do it again for the rest of the day with no success, the day after that i got a couple more by mistake, the next day i was skiing while practicing and i saw that while I go on rough terrain the bumps i go on while skiing makes my tongue vibrate on just the right way to trill, i kept on going on rough terrain and trilling, i got so excited when I got it right and was able to control it right there that i skied the entire mountain screaming: " CARRO! PERRO! CARRO! PERRO!" That's when I really got excited about Spanish
@@reemwertheim7781 Well, guess I'll have to wait for the skiing season. It does however look like I'll have to content with speaking either uncomfortalble double tapped r, or a little less uncomfortable guttural trill. I can do any trill possible for a human, yet this alveolar trill has been elluding me for months of really intense practice and effort. And all of that despite the fact that this sound exists in my native language
@@janboreczek3045 you can give up, that's fine, i don't care. But it's for you, you gotta believe that you will eventually do it. Because a third of the world knows how to do it and it's a learnable skill. You aren't different, you can learn it too
At last I know what to do. Four years of high school Spanish and two more semesters in college. Lots of people tell me I have good Spanish skills, but they just don't acknowledge I haven't been able to trill my r's. I have a linguistics degree and never had anyone show me where the tongue is, what part of the tongue is there, and how to build up pressure like saying an [Indian subcontinent] d. I have had many people attempt to describe what is going on to no avail. Now, I'm taking Latin. They think Latin speakers trilled their r's; so, once again, I'm on a quest to do it. Thank you. I actually got this working partially tonight.
For all of those who cannot trill their Rs, there is still hope. I am a native Spanish speaker from Costa Rica where we DO NOT trill our Rs (we are always made fun of but we don't care), we pronounce our Rs just like Americans do. So, there you go!!
Spanish speaking guy here. For most part this is exactly was I was trying to explain to some english speaking friend when rolling their R: >Location of the tongue. >Similar sound in their native language. >The cat purring method. I already send them this video, so they finally can embrace spanish rolled R.
Yeah, my tongue does not vibrate when pushed with air. The air just goes around it. The only way I have ever been able to vibrate the tip of my tongue is use my throat that little flappy thing hanging down from the throat. It has never worked for me. My Bosnian family (trilled r's are used, and I cannot do them and never have been able to) have always thought me to be defective. I do think it is one of those things you have to be genetically inclined to do or learn, like being able to learn to play a violin, or any complex instrument, like a maestro, or to rattle of primes to a billion wihtout thinking. Reading through the comments, it is heartening to know there is a community of people who cannot, no matter what they do, trill their r's. It is like a support group.
I've felt the same but please don't give up. I'm convinced everyone can do it. Some just need more effort and practice. I've been practicing to roll the R for about a week now. I'm a german speaking person and I started with words with a "br" at the beginning like "Braut" and switched the r with a d so I said "Bdaut" a lot. I also said "td td td td" und "tle tle tle" maaaaany times, very fast, every morning and every evening while driving to work or driving home. Amongst that I did lip trills and tried to keep my tounge lose while doing that. Then I put my tounge lose at the top of my gum, very much in the front, the tip is more between the teeth and blocked the air above the tounge. Then I pressed the air out till my tounge started to vibrate. It's like a fart with the tounge to be honest :D it didn't worked immediately so you have to try try try. this vibrating feeling is the one we need but now we have to place this vibration more to the middle part of the tounge and the tip moves back, where we form our "d" and "t" and THEN I came back to words with "br" or "put-it-away" and booom, there came my rolled R :)))) it's not good yet but I keep practicing. Funfact: it's easier when you lay on your back and let your head hang down a little bit (works best on a bed)
brate ovo, ista stvar. uvijek sam mislio da je nešto što se nemože promijeniti, al evo sad malo gledam pa kontam možda možemo nešto izvest (za sad ništa)
I know this comment is a year old, but for anyone else struggling with this: think of trying to say the letter 'd' or a really hard 't' without using your voice or throat, it will be almost a bit of a popping sound. This is what the pressure means, and then all you have to do is angle the tip of your tongue slightly back and try to say the words like rot or ring or praise.
Yeah I'd describe it like that. Is still hard as a native spanish speaker to explain it but, Like trying to put a lot of emphasis on a "T", the english d sound just as a placement placeholder Then just trying to let the tongue flap while doing the strong T, without pulling out the tongue as with a normal t, but keeping it in place not so hard/pushy either: while producing that small PLOP T sound, pushing a bit of air TO the tongue only the tongue tip instead of just letting it out, strong enough to produce the "T" but soft enough to not make a Spit Th. -It doesn't even has to be so hard, but I might be over experienced by nativity as I can make soft trills just pushing a bit of constant air doing a purrrrr. The rest to go to the final trill is hard to explain. But I hope my extra comment to above's comment to add extra details can help someone out there.
This video just goes to prove that the simplest explanations are always the best! After four years of learning Spanish I've been very inconsistent with trilling r. I've now spent two days nailing it every time! (it's a start)
@@tenminutespanish Keep making these videos (please!) Your channel is by far the best and most comprehensive resource for Spanish pronunciation out there, you obviously put a lot of thought, intelligence and time into making these videos, so it's a big thank you from me! 👍
"Find the D sound." "Done." "Find the other D sound." "Done, I feel it." "Put some air pressure." *Lower Lips immediately let out all air, not vibrating the tongue as it is cleaning out my gums.* OR *Wind noises/No Noise at all.* At this point, closest thing I got is some inhuman mess in the back of my throat. I can't tell if it is just I am unable to roll my tongue due to it not relaxing, my lips not being tight, my entire 'D' sound being off, my tongue folding itself too much, not being able to relax my tongue, etc. I have tried for fifteen years to get this right and I still am no closer. At this point, I think it's just safe to assume any language with a rolled R is an automatic fail and I'll just have to move on. For those who succeed, nicely done. You have far better control, patience, or just better mouth shape. I sincerely and utterly think it's just impossible with my mouth structure at this point.
your lips don't play any role in the articulation of the sound though. the air pressure is built by the seal your tongue makes with the roof of your mouth. the exact point of contact of the tongue tip with the alveolar ridge or palate isn't really as important (at least I, as a native speaker, can make it trill in a wide range and even with a point slightly higher than the tip of the tongue), as long as it's not touching your lips. the most important part seems to be the seal-release mechanism. no lips are involved, only the tongue and the bony parts of your palate.
Your directions were vert descriptive. This is the first time i ever even got any kind of trill sound. The best trick was to lie down and clear the throat. Thank you
This is a brilliant way to break down how the tongue works when trilling. The slightly raised tongue when the air is pushed against it, naturally vibrates it against the alveolar. I can finally (nearly) roll my Rs! 😛 Practicaré mucho
With this video I have graduated from making an ungodly hissing noise with a lot of drool to a fart sound made by my tongue behind my teeth, without drool! .. . It's... progress???
the very clear and concise explanation on the tongue placement leading to "just create a tiny bit of air pressure" shows you are truly a master at ragebait, it's honestly impressive
@@user-epicguy123 We create a tiny bit of pressure every time we pronounce p,t,k,b,d,g. It's something everyone knows how to do. Also, please remember I began the video with a several-minute discussion of why going into too much detail was counter productive. If I had explained exactly how to generate a tiny bit of pressure people would complain that that explanation was wrong. The important thing is to begin attempting to trill using the activities I suggest starting around 9:10.
This video is hands down the very best explanation I have ever come across. I was getting closer these last few weeks, watching different TH-cam videos but everything changed during this video. I had no idea about the "flat d" sound and the sound created when I do a " flat d" and then roll my tongue up only a few millimeters. I can trill like a jackhammer now! I got it instantaneously! Now, I need to incorporate it into the words I am learning. It will likely take some time to get the subtlety of it within words, but I can trill like a wild man after this video, and I am smiling from ear to ear! Muchos gracias!
So good! I have always been able to trill but have been struggling to naturally fit it into the words themselves and the sound just entirely collapses. This was so helpful.
I was someone who thought my palette was the wrong shape and would never be able to do this. However after watching your videos (and others), I can finally do a closed mouth tongue trill most of the time. I still have alot to practice, but I've been stuck on 1a for so long and it feels like a breakthrough. What was really helpful for me was practicing getting my tongue tip in position with just the back and sides of my tongue. Do it throughout the day and don't "try" too hard or too long. That way, you can catch yourself naturally when your mouth is relaxed. Then once I got that down, i literally started with with the sound i make when i hock a loogie (a hoarse vibration in the back of the throat, but be careful not to stretch your throat). Then transition that vibration of the throat and back of the tongue to vibrating the front of the tongue (by engaging my relaxed tongue practice). From there it was a matter of finding it for the first time and remembering to relax while hocking a loogie.
These videos are fascinating, even more so since I couldn't trill my r apically for decades, I only could simulate it with the uvula. I only just recently (this year) figured out how to do it, in the course of doing online Spanish lessons. I was able to do it after lots of practice... however, I still couldn't have told you exactly what I was doing to make the sound until I came across your video channel. The key, for me, was realizing that I have to pull the tip of my tongue back when I do it, and also subconsciously cup the tongue. I still can't hold it for a long time, fortunately that isn't a super important part of speaking the actual language, but I am working on it! Fantastic videos as always, I am learning a lot from them.
honestly, i have no idea why has youtube recommended this video to me, because neither do i learn spanish, nor do i need to learn how to r, because this sound is a part of my language and i already know how to do it. but i still want to comment on how good the quality of this video is. you’re doing a great work! keep going like this, please. your explanation is neat and practical.
my language is not spanish and i always had difficulty pronouncing the r in spanish, even tho we have r in my mother tongue, but trilling was the tough part and he explained it so well that i made this sound finally! and even i can pronounce it in words beginning with a trilled r!
this actually just changed my life. ITS BEEN YEARS. I finally learned how to vibrate the tongue. It's gonna take a bit more practice to get to "brr" without making the gargling sound/motion, but i FINALLY got it. Thank you!!!
This is a great video and i quite like it. But i was still having a question that where you got those information on Spanish phonetics and phonology from. I have some of my friends majoring in English linguistics and they use English phonetics and phonology - Peter Roach as a curriculum material. I wondered if there were sources where i could get phonetic transcriptions or IPA transcription for Spanish and French. Thank you ❤
You can get books on Spanish phonetics and phonology, but I've found that Spanish linguistics tend to use symbols a bit different from IPA sometimes. It can be confusing going from the Spanish texts I'm familiar with to IPA. If you pay attention to my transcription in these videos, you'll see that I'm sorta inconsistent in my phonetic transcription.
@@juliagonzalez9977 Combination of things. Positioning the tongue in the correct position was definitely the big thing. It's ever so slightly different than the way you position the way to pronounce the English t, but it makes all the difference.
This is a good video. I notice that this video like any others that I've watched-none mentions that when you're mouth is dry (and you're first learning), it's a lot harder to make this sound.
I love how you speak, to the point and use oictures. I struggle to understand when ppl start describing which part of the tongue/mouth should be doing what
I have discernible success with the techniques taught in this video! But my advice is to find as many examples (tutorials) and sample them all. Each teacher has a style and one of those lessons will help you achieve the trilled "R." This teacher just trilled me the right way. Thank you so much! "
I feel like "learning" these kind of things is only possible after "unlearning" what you've been doing a million times. Unlearning is the most important skills there is--also in general.
To be fair, as a native Spanish speaker, it took until I was age 7 for me to start trilling my R’s, and a few more months to get it to a place where it felt natural (yes I remember the process perfectly, and how frustrating it was for me). It’ll just happen if you keep speaking Spanish, but it may take years and years. I remember some kids were even being sent to speech therapy. It’s frustrating for us too.
Ahh yes, an update to the already great original video. Also, since you did point it out, I just noticed that when I trill my r, it's also asymmetrical, slightly favoring the right side of my tongue. Great videos as always! Greetings from the Philippines!
This video helped me a lot. Thank you. There are two things I didn't hear mention that might help as well. It's easier for me to make the trilled r if the air pressure is much higher. Really force the air past the tongue and once it starts vibrating, back it off. Also I think the position of the lips and cheek are important. I have found it's easier if the lips fairly closed and the cheeks at the corner of the mouth are kind of pinched in. Almost like you're making the eww sound.
Ok, I need to share this. I'm Brazilian (therefore, Latin). Still, I often struggled when trying to pronounce this phoneme (even though we KNOW this sound and how we could make it, he doesn't exist in our language itself, and the great majority of Brazilians don't use it in their dialects, so it still can be difficult as we don't use it), and I was confused on where to place the tip of my tongue. It's pretty wacky that I've learned how to pronounce this Spanish phoneme (of a language which is phonetically similar to Brazilian Portuguese) properly with an (I suppose) American guy, or, anyway, someone who has English as their motherlanguage. This was by far the most unusual way the English language (and having learned it) has ever helped me. Thank you.
I had watched many videos teaching me how to make "rr" sound, just felt confused. But after watching this, I could easily make "rr" sound. Thank you so much for making this video!
I trill asymmetrically too. When I try to trill symmetrically, I notice that my tongue stiffens a little bit, and the tip of the tongue goes from [ɖ] to [d] but still just behind the alveolar ridge. Strange. Anyway, thanks for the description at the start. Your explanation is way more effective.
Hey there, quick question: How exactly do I make air pressure in this position? All the air flies out from the sides of my tongue. I understand the manner and location of articulation, but I cannot for the life of me get my tongue to do this. I know I can, since my native dialect of English uses Alveolar tap quite extensively, so I don’t want to give up on this sound as I’m on the C1 threshold of Spanish and this is the main sound I have yet to master in my pronunciation. Thank you for the video! It was very high quality.
If the air flies out the sides, you're making pressure, you're just not sealing the sides of the tongue to the upper gum line. You have to make a seal and channel the air out the front.
I have this problem as well, however for me the problem seems go be a tooth I have that grew in kinda weird so I can't really seal my tounge on the sides very well. I can however get the side of my tounge to vibrate if I press the tip into that weird tooth. But that doesn't help me because I have to move it back and to the side which is really unnatural when trying to speak. Any advice?
These tips combined with hearing you thrill, prrrr and brrrr, as well as speak many words with the thrill made a big difference on finally gaining traction on the first stage, vibration. I am feeling tongue vibrate on roof of mouth, but also uvula vibrating and getting irritated. I'm not able to make r then neutral uh sound. Maybe too forceful of expelled air ? It definitely doesn't feel like gargling by any stretch, but uvula vibrating. I'll keep practicing daily and welcome any other detail or example on what is meant by a "tiny bit of air pressure inside mouth" [minute 5:55]., whilst mouth/lips are actually open. BTW - Thank you also for the excellent and thoughtful practice plan
When I try this, air leaks from both sides of my tongue further back near the rear teeth, making a "double flutter" there. The tongue tip just doesn't move. If I try to stop the side leak then the entire tongue stops fluttering.😢
How did you go resolving this? The key is to seal the sides, but without making the tongue tense. Think of it as just the side edges of the tongue (next to the teeth? making a seal, but the central of the tongue being very relaxed. As soon as I worked out how to do that, it worked.
Is still hard as a native spanish speaker to explain it but, Like the air pressure thing is like trying to put a lot of emphasis on a "T", using the english D sound 2:18* just as a placement placeholder Then just trying to let the tongue relax down while doing the strong T, without pulling out the tongue tip/pre-tip as with a normal t, but keeping it in place not so hard/pushy either while producing that small PLOP T sound, pushing a bit of air to the tongue only the tongue tip just like done with the d/t sounds again. strong enough to produce the "T" but soft enough to not make a Spit Th. -It doesn't even has to be so hard, but I might be over experienced by nativity as I can make soft trills just pushing a bit of constant air doing a purrrrr. The rest to go to the final trill goal is hard to explain. But after managing to solve the air leak problem thinking of it as an english D, but voiceless as a "strong T", then just blowing a bit more of air into the tongue like a constant purr and optionally (but common for every trill in general) vibrating the vocal cords too, should help.. I hope at least helps :3
You don't need to seal the sides of your tongue, that's not how Spanish speakers do it. The important point is that you need to relax your tongue, otherwise it won't work. The best way to get a feel for it is to lie down and just let your tongue lie on the position described in the video (though you can produce a trill at other positions too). Now just push air through, it needs to push its way through between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. It's similar to how you would imitate the sound of a machine gun. If you do it a couple of times lying down with your head bent back, you'll be able to do it in a normal position. The main mistake seems to be that people don't relax their tongue, it needs to be relaxed to start fluttering.
This is so helpful, thank you! Question: Should it sound like a bee buzzing as you are trying to create the vibration? That’s all I’m getting. ( I also end up vibrating my lips!) Just wanted to make sure before I keep practicing it over and over.
@@tenminutespanish Ah yes, well, I haven’t been able to vibrate my tongue yet. So am I trying to practice something at this point? Or just keep playing with how I place my tongue, then relaxing it (my tongue) and pushing air through it? So far all this sounds like is a buzzing bee
Hi Julia. Try focusing on activity @ 10:38 mimick his sound 'with flair'. Up til then, nothing trilled for me. Suddenly with Gandulf in mind trills came out with each English word. Relax and let it flow. Good luck
If people are still struggling, thats okay. I've been trying for weeks to get it and I've started to be able to do it inconstantly after watching dozens of videos. I believe I understand the issue now, and it's that the trilled r uses muscles in the mouth that native English speakers typically just don't use, and when you don't use a muscle, it deteriorates. Watching videos about rolling rs is like watching videos on how to flex your bicep for someone who has never moved their arm before. Theres no trick or secret, you just need to strengthen the muscle by trying to do it frequently. Use the techniques from different videos and just try to replicate it whenever you're alone. You will not get it immediately. You just want to find those muscles and work them out until they are strong enough to do it. Babies babble for years trying to mimic sounds their parents heard. The only difference between you and the baby is that you never heard this particular sound enough to try to mimic it as a child. So now to get it you basically need to become a baby again and babble until you can do it.
Awesome, I learned how to trill my r from your video a few months back! Now I have two follow-up questions: 1. I found that depending on the vowels preceding the trilled-r, my tongue tip position varies slightly. For example, when pronunciating "agarrar", my tongue tip is a tiny bit backwards comparing to say, "rojo". Am I doing this right or this is just a bad habit and I should improve consistency over time? 2. Does trilled-r require more airflow in general? I found that I frequently run out of air if the sentence is long, and I couldn't trill it properly. Again, not sure if it's just me.
Great questions. 1. Tongue position is slightly different depending on neighboring sounds. Practice, practice, practice to make the trill as consistent as possible. 2. It should require no more air than is necessary for any other sound. For example, trilled r and "ah" require the same amount of air.
I love your high level of specificity...it really helps. I'm curious if you know anything about how Spanish evolved to have this trilled r? It is a quite noticeable feature and occurs more frequently than any language I've heard. I dare say it is the only language that systematically does this.
For me, it is getting my voice in there. I can find the placement, flutter my tongue and make that kind of guttural noise. But I cannot engage my vocal cords. Still practicing.
Interesting. Good job. French R is still trilled in many regions though, such as Occitanie (30% of the country), Catalogne, French Polynesia, etc. There are 3 Rs in all Romance dialects. Manejar is lenis. Carro is fortis. Para is monovibrante.
I've been trying to trill my r's since I started learning Spanish at age 9. I'm almost 50 now and still can't really do it. I can usually do the sound in isolation, but I have trouble adding it to a word or sentence in a natural way. I feel like I have to stop, trill the r, stop, and then continue. It's especially difficult in a word like "ferrocarril" where I keep stopping and starting. I think I need to work on trilling the r without thinking about it so hard. I've been learning Catalan lately and it's even harder because practically every r is trilled. I'm glad to know that an asymmetrical trill is OK and I don't have to keep working on vibrating only the tip of my tongue. My trill, when I can do it, also goes around the right side of my tongue. I also find I tend to blow too hard, which combined with the stopping and starting, really calls attention to how hard I am trying. The word comes out more like "ferr o carr il" or even "fe rr o ca rr il" rather than "ferrocarril" because I can't make it flow. I am going to keep working on it. At least I know I am physically able to make the sound. I always wondered if my tongue was too fat or too muscular or had some other anatomical problem that made the trill impossible. I need to work on relaxing my tongue. I tend to clench my jaw and I think tensing up the tongue goes along with that.
Why am I watching this?? I'm mexican 😂😂 Don't be discouraged if you don't get the r sound right, it took me quite a while to master it and I'm a native.
@@janboreczek3045So this is a very important sound in spanish, but I managed to pronounce it right until I was 11 years old, if I'm not mistaken. So it's normal if it takes you a couple of years. The good thing with Spanish, is that even if you can't roll the r, it's still understandable.
@@mariaijebd1637 Thanks! However, I'm not learning spanish. I'm trying to learn the pronounciation of my native language (Polish), as well as the language I'm learning (Arabic). In both of those languages the trilled r is important, and trying to say my imitations of that sound twice is hard, and often even in normal words those imitations feel unnatural, to the point of my tongue "getting lost" in a normal speech. Also, I'm 26 and I still cannot pronounce it. Despite months of exercising my tongue, with the aid of a speech therapist, the tip of my tongue stubbornly refuses to be even slightly more mobile. For example, I routinely fail with the tapped r in my daily speech (it's one of my substitutes), and when practicing the ddddd (but using the tip of the tongue, not the blade as I've been doing in my ordinary speech) the tongue feels "unresponsive", very much like your arms when you are significantly drunk. And it keeps staying that way despite A LOT of practice and despite a help from the speech therapist
@@tenminutespanish I struggle most with the transition from making the noise whilst rolling tongue which largely i can do... to speaking the words. Its as if the way I do it isn't conducive to talking and I hold my mouth in a way that allows me to roll my tongue solely to make the noise but then not translate into a natural speaking rhythm. Hope that makes sense
@@dannygallagherspanish4790 I understand. You should be able to roll your tongue with your mouth in any position. I recommend practicing trilling with your mouth in different positions. Get so you can trill while putting your mouth in many different positions.
Thanks to this video and putting in some efforts, I think I have mastered the trilled r sound- except when it's preceded by the vowel /i/. Any thoughts?
Some consonant sounds are trickier after /i/, because /i/ is pronounced with tongue high and posterior in the mouth while some consonants are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching somewhere anterior in the mouth. Trilled r, of course, is one of those. All I can say is if you have a good trilled r in other sound combinations, you can figure this out. Practice, practice, practice.
My problem is, the only time I can get my tongue to flutter is when the tip is flat to that spot, not curled back...when it's curled back, it's too stiff and won't flutter
i can say “correr, carro” and stuff like like but i cant hold my rolled r’s for long at all! like im able to do it, but i cant hold it and i cant do it without saying a word with it
This is helpful for mentioning the asymmetric trill. I have a similar problem but worse. My trill entirely comes out on two sides while the tip does not trill. I suspect ii is because the tip is tied by the frenulum.
Is there any observed variation in the length of the trill with certain dialects? So certain regions or dialects that are more prone to either only have few taps(say 3-4) in the trilled r and others that have more extended trills?
Yes. There are certainly dialects that trill more clearly and purposefully, and others that are more relaxed about it. I couldn't give you a list or anything.
I guess one thing I want to make sure I'm thinking about correctly, is how the sides of the tongue are in relation to the teeth. The exact moment before pronouncing the English [d] I seem to have a complete pressure seal between my tongue, my molars, and the upper ridge. When releasing that air pressure, I think I'm symmetrically releasing my tongue from both sides of the tongue at the molars and the ridge. I'm guessing besides the tongue tip placement being different, I should expect the way the tongue is releasing the air pressure to be roughly the same? This is actually a bit different than what I had been trying all these years, where I'm only letting the pressure escape at the tip of my tongue instead of all sides, creating a weird whistling noise. Will still need to practice, not sure if I'm keeping my tongue too tense after pressure release, but I guess this is one more mystery solved in my quest to make this sound.
Another great video! Comforting to know that an asymmetrical trill is normal, I thought it was just me getting it wrong as my tongue tends to go towards the left when I do it
Thank you for creating such an informative video that is very understandable for those new to the language. But I do have a couple questions. Would you consider the voiced alvealor trill r to be an apical, subapical, or sublaminal consonant? And wouldn't the Retroflex D (Voiced retroflex plosive ɖ) position be post-alvealor?
Hey Dan! I'm lucky in that I don't struggle a ton with trilled Rs. However, I find it difficult to pronounce words such as "rural," where one R is trilled and the other is not. Do you have any suggestions? I can say it if I talk very slowly, but not at a pace fit for conversation. Your videos have helped improve my Spanish pronunciation a ton, by the way! Thank you!
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. There's no trick, and there is no substitute for practice. And thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you like my channel.
As a speaker of Greek, which definitely has a trilled R just like Spanish, I can make my tongue vibrate instinctively. It feels weird that people from other cultures, such as English, can't even understand how to make the sound.
It is very interesting how difficult it can be to make the fine neuromuscular adjustments necessary to pronounce the sounds of other peoples' languages, when native speakers of those languages have no problem making those same sounds. I know a native Russian speaker who can't (or won't?) pronounce the English "th" sound. Instead of "thanks", she says "sh-tanks". She has been living in the US for 25 years and has a job at a university. And lots of people from many language backgrounds pronounce English voiced "th" as in "these and those" like a /d/: "dese" and "dose". It's a very curious fact about learning a foreign language, that that language may contain sounds that you can't even figure out how to produce, and even if you're technically capable of producing the sound, can't develop the habit of producing correctly in streams of natural speech.
That's interesting. I trill the R perfectly but the point of the tongue where it connects is the top of the tip, not the part shown in the video, meaning it's the upper part of the tip, not the lower or lower-middle. I guess everyone needs to find what works out the best to produce the phoneme.
Hi there! This video did help me get started on trilling my Rs but I can only get about 3 or 4 "beats" before it stops. I can't figure out how to extend it. Is it possible I'm doing something close but incorrect or do I probably just need to keep practicing until I'm more comfortable with it?
For everyone having trouble with these kinds of videos, just be aware that some people’s tongue anatomy isn’t conducive to trilling like this. You might have an especially muscular or short tongue that makes trilling virtually impossible.
If that were true, we'd see a spectrum of variation in the ability of native speakers to trill, when in fact we see virtually none. A small percentage of native speakers can't trill, and this is considered a speech impediment, but there is no evidence that this is because of variation in tongue anatomy. Of course, almost every student of Spanish who can't figure out how to trill believes that he/she has a physical impediment. This is almost certainly not the case.
@@tenminutespanish Without careful examination of learners’ mouths, this seems more of a statistics game. How many of those native speakers are non-Hispanic in race? What is the actual percentage of naive speakers who can’t trill? What’s the percentage of Spanish learners who fail to ever learn to trill? If the speech impediment is not because of tongue anatomy, then what is it-palate shape or nervous system anatomy? Seems a little premature to just say that the large portion of learners who will never be able to trill are all just failing to follow instructions.
@@georgeofhamilton What makes you think careful examination of people's mouths hasn't been done? People get degrees in Speech and Language Pathology. It's a whole science. And there are specialists in this in Spanish speaking countries. I urge you to do some reading on it. Apart from some well-known conditions such as tongue tie (ankyloglossia) there is no anatomical tongue variation associated with inability to trill r. There are native Spanish speakers of every race. Native Spaniards are white European. Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba have a lot of African ancestry. Many Latin American countries have indigenous Americans. Peru has large numbers of Asians. There isn't any phenotype of humans that appears to have a disadvantage in trilling r. What's more, Spanish isn't the only language that trills r. Italian, Russian, Arabic, Scottish Gaelic, Polish, European Portuguese, Serbian and Croatian, Turkish, and other languages have a trilled r sound. The original peoples who speak these languages are phenotypically very diverse. But what's more, in modern times there are native speakers of these languages from every race on earth. If any significant number of people were anatomically incapable of trilling r, it wouldn't be a phoneme in so many languages. Think about it. A phoneme is critical for conveying linguistic information. If a significant proportion of the population can't make the sound, or if there is a lot of variation in how the sound is produced based on tongue anatomy, the phoneme can't persist as a useful element. This is basic phonology. And statistics aren't a "game". They're very useful in fleshing out questions like this. If tongue size and shape were critical to the quality of trilled r, there would be variation in the sound approximating a bell curve. Moreover, men would trill differently from women; fat people would trill differently from skinny people; people of one race would trill differently from another, etc. None of this is the case. And statistics are very useful in making this case. Native speakers are able trill with almost no exception. (The exception being people with the speech impediment I mentioned.) Non-native speakers who come from a language with no trill have a harder time, and large numbers of them believe they are anatomically incapable. They aren't. They just haven't figured it out. If you want to make the argument that there is a lot of variation in ability to trill r depending on tongue anatomy, it is incumbent upon you to demonstrate that native speakers of languages that trill r do so differently depending on tongue anatomy. I argue that it is self evidenly not the case. Anyone who has visited any country where they speak a language with trilled r will observe that essentially everyone in a given region pronounces it the same way. (Of course there are dialectal differences, but those are regional, not based on tongue anatomy.)
@@tenminutespanish The facts that you state may be true, and I’ll accept most of them at face value since this issue doesn’t very much concern me and it would be a waste of time to research this subject in depth. But you still don’t establish with certainty that most people who struggle with trilling are simply not utilizing the correct technique. Ankyloglossia can be present in as much as ten percent of the population, depending on the accepted definition. I’d say that anywhere over two percent could account for the multitudes of people who claim to never be able to trill. These people include the commenters on this tutorial who complain that in every tutorial, there’s a missing “magic step” between relaxing and positioning the tongue correctly, and producing a trill. That magic step is a failure to identify and explain the intimate mechanics and prerequisites of trilling. If a tutorial could say with certainty that “You need to exercise and build up the anterior end of the tongue muscle” or “The contact area of your tongue should be in a two-to-three ratio with the width of your palate,” it would be more helpful, but it seems that virtually all tutorials assume that this level of detail isn’t necessary. And we only mentioned one kind of speech impediment. Furthermore, you yourself mention some variation that exists in trilling in your video: some people including yourself naturally trill more asymmetrically, and you are yet incapable of trilling symmetrically. It may not sound very different to the human ear, but it’s a clear mechanical difference. This could have a lot of possible reasons, including the shape of your tongue, your jaw, your palate, your teeth, and your nervous system. Maybe it’s important to practice trilling from an early age as well to effect the proper phenotype and coax the mouth to mature in a certain way. It’s conceivable that slight further variation could result in a person’s incapability to trill at all. If what you say about demographics is true, perhaps this isn’t closely correlated with race. But that doesn’t preclude other anatomical variation. So, you can say that most people who struggle with trilling are ultimately capable of it, and I wouldn’t doubt it. But to dismiss the idea that the issue could be anatomical is, again, premature. Here and now, doing so lacks justification.
Hi thanks for this, interestingly I cannot trill an R this way at all, I just make strange noises! however if I place my tongue tip ahead of the D sound test area of the mouth, instead of behind it I get a perfect 'R' trill. My tongue vibrates perfectly just behind my front upper teeth i.e. a quick "R" vibration for single letter R in Spanish and prolong the vibration for double spanish RR words. To be more specific there is a slight rise in the gum behind the 2 front upper teeth, I tend to bounce the rrr vibration off that, works great. I will however practice both methods to see if I can crack this method, great video and thanks again.
i have a tongue tie or Frenulum, ive never ever been able to trill/roll my R's as my tongue just goes completely rigid as a brick. can people with tongue ties roll their R's? do i need a tongue tie release surgery before i can trill my R's? answers please!!!! im learning Russian and loving it, but cannot roll my R's!
Yep. The best. omg. you wouldn't believe what's out there. Using in words and sentences is def. the important last step. Want to use this for singing in Italian -- however, outside of listening to someone sing a particular song ... I'm still a little confused about when they're strong, weak, or no rolls.
I think rules for Italian for trill vs. tap are different from Spanish, and lots of people who sing in Italian aren't natives and get it wrong. I recommend you research it.
I tried this position of the tongue and the tip won't flutter. I relax, I do everything you say (not only you, but dozens of other instructors on YT) and there isn't the slightest movement in the tip. Simply never. All I have been able to do, is move the R from the back of the troat towards the middle of the tongue, but it never affects the tip. Okay, it does flutter when I stick it out like a baby and blow, but only then. And no, weak motor skills is not the problem, I'm a dancer and speak many languages (practicing my mouth's motor skills on a daily basis since I was ten). But after 20 years of struggling I find myself quite discouraged. To be honest I think that there must be more of a genetic component to it; my babysister has always been able to trill her R (and that's not even part of our mother tongue).
If there were a genetic component to it, we'd expect to see variability in different human groups. But we don't. People of every conceivable face shape appear to be equal in their inherent ability to trill. The only exceptions appear to be people with observable significant anatomical variations, such as tongue tie or cleft palate.
I also followed lots of this type of video but couldn't do it. All I could do was vibrate the sides of my tongue. One day I decided to start with this side vibration and try to move it to the tip and that's how I finally got tongue trill.
This was so simple and easy to follow up until the tongue started fluttering. Retroflex D, got it, air pressure might be iffy though because there is no fluttering at the front. Any vibration ends up in the middle or back of the tongue, I know that's not right. I get closer to a whistle than to a flutter up front , hmm.
as someone who natively speaks with a trilled R, alot of native speakers have asymmetrical ones, rare few cant even do it, also its fine if it dies out after a while its not like ur saying perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro yk.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Every trilled R tutorial:
Step 1: Place you tongue like so
Step 2: Trill your R's
😂 accurate
This one is no exception
😂😂
@@diegocalvo6261this one tells you to build up pressure
5:00 ah the inevitable moment in seemingly every trilled R video where you've been correctly doing everything they ask until finally they're like, "and then you go rrrrrrrrr" and I just go "pfftththdhdhdhththth" 😑
EXACTLY. I was really excited about the level of detail in this video for the first few minutes. Then they're like, "and then you just trill your tongue." GAHHHHHH
@@megahern8467 hahaha it went exactly the same for me
Same here. It's like I'm missing a step or something
I can actually trill my rs. But when I followed the steps in this video and then built up pressure in my mouth, it didn't work for me. So I don't know if there's something missing, or if I'm trilling my rs wrong for Spanish. Being able to purr like a cat helps though - maybe having cats growing up helped :)
I am some what there, im in the in between stage, still kinda messy but its actually starting to sound like trilling my r's
No matter how much air flow I produce, my tongue does not move.
you must make the air flow turbulent
When I try to add the air pressure, the air just passes by my tongue
Same here. It slips out the sides.
i saw on another video to try and make an f sound and then push your tounge up into flow of air
@@tracyw1200 same here
Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth where retroflex English D goes but the very edges of the sides of your tongue are against your teeth from the tooth behind your incisors all the way to the place where the tip of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth about the distance of the tip of your thumb between your tongue and the front two teeth kline you're locking your thumbnail while your fingerprint presses against those two teeth) and the bottom half of your tongue is flattened and relaxed like when you say "La".
Move the tip of your tongue between the back of your front to teeth to where it should properly be for Spanish R while you keep the side edges of your tongue against the front half of your top teeth until you start to feel a vibration on the roof of your mouth while keeping your tongue relaxed.
It's like trying to make the childish raspberry noise with your lips and tongue, blowing hard outwardly to say, "THpTHpTH!"
You're doing that but with only the top tip against the roof of your mouth while the front ⅓ or so of the edges of the sides of your tongue are against your teeth.
That makes a hard to make sound that turns into a Spanish R when enough air forces your tongue out of the way and then varying the pressure will cause it to flap the same way as when you make the raspberry noise.
i can give an advice a year later,the tongue got to be relaxed,if not,that will happen,just relax it and it will work!
I’ve been waiting for this information for a long time. Retroflex was the word I needed I think, nobody ever mentioned that. I can do a fake Indian accent so I can trill my r’s, it was always that easy! But I never knew I could. Thanks
I'm so happy this explanation worked for you.
MISSING TECHNIQUE: This did it for me instantly after months trying: Lie in bed and tilt your head completely back. This makes your tongue rest against the roof of your mouth. Much easier to get the tongue into position while leaving it relaxed.
That's a good suggestion!
Wait this actually helped... sooo now I just gotta practice Spanish laying down lmaoo
i was laying down on my bed when I unintentionally did this and finally trilled my R
EDIT: One day, a few weeks ago, I randomly got it. And I'm honestly a bit frustrated about it because I have no idea what I did differently, if I even did in the first place. I had hoped that if the time ever came where I did it, I'd be able to give some tips to people who were also struggling to help them figure it out too. My problem was that I would have my tongue in the right spot, but the air would either push my tongue out of the way with at most one "tap" or I'd be trying to compensate with extra pressure and my tongue wouldn't allow any air past. I was practicing with the former outcome, and then just *got* it completely randomly when I wasn't even trying. I wish I had some secret info for everyone in the replies who are struggling but I'm afraid not. At this point, I can only produce the isolated sound, and can't do it voiced yet. And it's not 100% perfect either. Given that I can't get it every time I try (it's more like 90%), I do think it's a case of getting all the steps perfect just once and then being able to finally progress from there. Good luck everyone. (Jan '24)
Nope, I still can't get my tongue to vibrate lol. This video did definitely help with my tongue placement but no matter how much I try I can never get it to actually vibrate... closest I've gotten is when I've sneezed! Hopefully I can get it eventually lol
Don't worry, it takes time, it took me 4 days of just trying for hours until I finally got it right, just keep practicing, and you will get it in due time
@@reemwertheim7781 I've been doing the exact same thing as You, with no success
@@janboreczek3045 each person takes a different amount of time, just remember that it's possible and that the overwhelming majority of the Spanish world can do it. Also I think I watched around a billion videos explaining how to trill, and found some good tongue twisters to practice. After a while of not being able to do it i got one by mistake, and tried to do it again for the rest of the day with no success, the day after that i got a couple more by mistake, the next day i was skiing while practicing and i saw that while I go on rough terrain the bumps i go on while skiing makes my tongue vibrate on just the right way to trill, i kept on going on rough terrain and trilling, i got so excited when I got it right and was able to control it right there that i skied the entire mountain screaming: " CARRO! PERRO! CARRO! PERRO!" That's when I really got excited about Spanish
@@reemwertheim7781 Well, guess I'll have to wait for the skiing season. It does however look like I'll have to content with speaking either uncomfortalble double tapped r, or a little less uncomfortable guttural trill. I can do any trill possible for a human, yet this alveolar trill has been elluding me for months of really intense practice and effort. And all of that despite the fact that this sound exists in my native language
@@janboreczek3045 you can give up, that's fine, i don't care. But it's for you, you gotta believe that you will eventually do it. Because a third of the world knows how to do it and it's a learnable skill. You aren't different, you can learn it too
At last I know what to do. Four years of high school Spanish and two more semesters in college. Lots of people tell me I have good Spanish skills, but they just don't acknowledge I haven't been able to trill my r's. I have a linguistics degree and never had anyone show me where the tongue is, what part of the tongue is there, and how to build up pressure like saying an [Indian subcontinent] d. I have had many people attempt to describe what is going on to no avail. Now, I'm taking Latin. They think Latin speakers trilled their r's; so, once again, I'm on a quest to do it. Thank you. I actually got this working partially tonight.
Well... I sound like an angry helecopter or machine gun, and my vision goes blurry when i do it, lol
As a spanish speaker, that happens when you force the r too much
For all of those who cannot trill their Rs, there is still hope. I am a native Spanish speaker from Costa Rica where we DO NOT trill our Rs (we are always made fun of but we don't care), we pronounce our Rs just like Americans do. So, there you go!!
How interesting!! I’d love to hear you speak!
As an American who’s going to study abroad in Costa Rica and can’t roll their rs (yet!) this is great to hear
Spanish speaking guy here. For most part this is exactly was I was trying to explain to some english speaking friend when rolling their R:
>Location of the tongue.
>Similar sound in their native language.
>The cat purring method.
I already send them this video, so they finally can embrace spanish rolled R.
Yeah, my tongue does not vibrate when pushed with air. The air just goes around it. The only way I have ever been able to vibrate the tip of my tongue is use my throat that little flappy thing hanging down from the throat.
It has never worked for me. My Bosnian family (trilled r's are used, and I cannot do them and never have been able to) have always thought me to be defective. I do think it is one of those things you have to be genetically inclined to do or learn, like being able to learn to play a violin, or any complex instrument, like a maestro, or to rattle of primes to a billion wihtout thinking.
Reading through the comments, it is heartening to know there is a community of people who cannot, no matter what they do, trill their r's. It is like a support group.
THIS
I've felt the same but please don't give up. I'm convinced everyone can do it. Some just need more effort and practice. I've been practicing to roll the R for about a week now. I'm a german speaking person and I started with words with a "br" at the beginning like "Braut" and switched the r with a d so I said "Bdaut" a lot. I also said "td td td td" und "tle tle tle" maaaaany times, very fast, every morning and every evening while driving to work or driving home. Amongst that I did lip trills and tried to keep my tounge lose while doing that. Then I put my tounge lose at the top of my gum, very much in the front, the tip is more between the teeth and blocked the air above the tounge. Then I pressed the air out till my tounge started to vibrate. It's like a fart with the tounge to be honest :D it didn't worked immediately so you have to try try try. this vibrating feeling is the one we need but now we have to place this vibration more to the middle part of the tounge and the tip moves back, where we form our "d" and "t" and THEN I came back to words with "br" or "put-it-away" and booom, there came my rolled R :)))) it's not good yet but I keep practicing. Funfact: it's easier when you lay on your back and let your head hang down a little bit (works best on a bed)
brate ovo, ista stvar. uvijek sam mislio da je nešto što se nemože promijeniti, al evo sad malo gledam pa kontam možda možemo nešto izvest (za sad ništa)
Same, im just getting an h sound
Everyone in my family can trill their r’s but me, I feel you.
Can you please elaborate on “air pressure”? I actually don’t know what are you talking about
I know this comment is a year old, but for anyone else struggling with this: think of trying to say the letter 'd' or a really hard 't' without using your voice or throat, it will be almost a bit of a popping sound. This is what the pressure means, and then all you have to do is angle the tip of your tongue slightly back and try to say the words like rot or ring or praise.
'without using your voice' wtf does that mean. @@xyresikk2435
Yeah I'd describe it like that. Is still hard as a native spanish speaker to explain it but, Like trying to put a lot of emphasis on a "T", the english d sound just as a placement placeholder
Then just trying to let the tongue flap while doing the strong T, without pulling out the tongue as with a normal t, but keeping it in place not so hard/pushy either: while producing that small PLOP T sound, pushing a bit of air TO the tongue only the tongue tip instead of just letting it out, strong enough to produce the "T" but soft enough to not make a Spit Th.
-It doesn't even has to be so hard, but I might be over experienced by nativity as I can make soft trills just pushing a bit of constant air doing a purrrrr.
The rest to go to the final trill is hard to explain. But I hope my extra comment to above's comment to add extra details can help someone out there.
@@xyresikk2435 bro you just helped me so much i got it instantly 😭
@@xyresikk2435 thank you!! It worked after your tip.
This video just goes to prove that the simplest explanations are always the best! After four years of learning Spanish I've been very inconsistent with trilling r. I've now spent two days nailing it every time! (it's a start)
Congratulations! I'm really happy this helped you.
@@tenminutespanish Keep making these videos (please!) Your channel is by far the best and most comprehensive resource for Spanish pronunciation out there, you obviously put a lot of thought, intelligence and time into making these videos, so it's a big thank you from me! 👍
"Find the D sound."
"Done."
"Find the other D sound."
"Done, I feel it."
"Put some air pressure."
*Lower Lips immediately let out all air, not vibrating the tongue as it is cleaning out my gums.*
OR
*Wind noises/No Noise at all.*
At this point, closest thing I got is some inhuman mess in the back of my throat. I can't tell if it is just I am unable to roll my tongue due to it not relaxing, my lips not being tight, my entire 'D' sound being off, my tongue folding itself too much, not being able to relax my tongue, etc. I have tried for fifteen years to get this right and I still am no closer. At this point, I think it's just safe to assume any language with a rolled R is an automatic fail and I'll just have to move on.
For those who succeed, nicely done. You have far better control, patience, or just better mouth shape. I sincerely and utterly think it's just impossible with my mouth structure at this point.
opening your mouth more should help
your lips don't play any role in the articulation of the sound though. the air pressure is built by the seal your tongue makes with the roof of your mouth. the exact point of contact of the tongue tip with the alveolar ridge or palate isn't really as important (at least I, as a native speaker, can make it trill in a wide range and even with a point slightly higher than the tip of the tongue), as long as it's not touching your lips. the most important part seems to be the seal-release mechanism. no lips are involved, only the tongue and the bony parts of your palate.
Your directions were vert descriptive. This is the first time i ever even got any kind of trill sound. The best trick was to lie down and clear the throat.
Thank you
This is a brilliant way to break down how the tongue works when trilling. The slightly raised tongue when the air is pushed against it, naturally vibrates it against the alveolar.
I can finally (nearly) roll my Rs! 😛 Practicaré mucho
Thank you! Congratulations!
With this video I have graduated from making an ungodly hissing noise with a lot of drool to a fart sound made by my tongue behind my teeth, without drool! .. . It's... progress???
Same brother!! Sounds like progress to me😂
bro what the fuck im dyin🤣
honestly same tho
Holy shit, this is the best video on the subject I've ever seen. The shwa was such a breakthrough point. Thanks for the video!
So glad you found this helpful.
the very clear and concise explanation on the tongue placement leading to "just create a tiny bit of air pressure" shows you are truly a master at ragebait, it's honestly impressive
@@user-epicguy123 We create a tiny bit of pressure every time we pronounce p,t,k,b,d,g. It's something everyone knows how to do. Also, please remember I began the video with a several-minute discussion of why going into too much detail was counter productive. If I had explained exactly how to generate a tiny bit of pressure people would complain that that explanation was wrong. The important thing is to begin attempting to trill using the activities I suggest starting around 9:10.
This video is hands down the very best explanation I have ever come across. I was getting closer these last few weeks, watching different TH-cam videos but everything changed during this video. I had no idea about the "flat d" sound and the sound created when I do a " flat d" and then roll my tongue up only a few millimeters. I can trill like a jackhammer now! I got it instantaneously!
Now, I need to incorporate it into the words I am learning. It will likely take some time to get the subtlety of it within words, but I can trill like a wild man after this video, and I am smiling from ear to ear!
Muchos gracias!
@@michaelsager5688 I'm so happy this worked for you!
So good! I have always been able to trill but have been struggling to naturally fit it into the words themselves and the sound just entirely collapses. This was so helpful.
I'm so glad to hear that!!
I was someone who thought my palette was the wrong shape and would never be able to do this. However after watching your videos (and others), I can finally do a closed mouth tongue trill most of the time. I still have alot to practice, but I've been stuck on 1a for so long and it feels like a breakthrough. What was really helpful for me was practicing getting my tongue tip in position with just the back and sides of my tongue. Do it throughout the day and don't "try" too hard or too long. That way, you can catch yourself naturally when your mouth is relaxed. Then once I got that down, i literally started with with the sound i make when i hock a loogie (a hoarse vibration in the back of the throat, but be careful not to stretch your throat). Then transition that vibration of the throat and back of the tongue to vibrating the front of the tongue (by engaging my relaxed tongue practice). From there it was a matter of finding it for the first time and remembering to relax while hocking a loogie.
These videos are fascinating, even more so since I couldn't trill my r apically for decades, I only could simulate it with the uvula. I only just recently (this year) figured out how to do it, in the course of doing online Spanish lessons. I was able to do it after lots of practice...
however, I still couldn't have told you exactly what I was doing to make the sound until I came across your video channel. The key, for me, was realizing that I have to pull the tip of my tongue back when I do it, and also subconsciously cup the tongue.
I still can't hold it for a long time, fortunately that isn't a super important part of speaking the actual language, but I am working on it!
Fantastic videos as always, I am learning a lot from them.
Thank you so much!
honestly, i have no idea why has youtube recommended this video to me, because neither do i learn spanish, nor do i need to learn how to r, because this sound is a part of my language and i already know how to do it.
but i still want to comment on how good the quality of this video is.
you’re doing a great work! keep going like this, please. your explanation is neat and practical.
Thank you so much!
russian sounds sexier ,listen to tatu - robot , lol
@@tenminutespanish Why you reply to people saying it worked, but never helping the people who said it never worked? What the fuck man?
my language is not spanish and i always had difficulty pronouncing the r in spanish, even tho we have r in my mother tongue, but trilling was the tough part and he explained it so well that i made this sound finally! and even i can pronounce it in words beginning with a trilled r!
this actually just changed my life. ITS BEEN YEARS. I finally learned how to vibrate the tongue. It's gonna take a bit more practice to get to "brr" without making the gargling sound/motion, but i FINALLY got it. Thank you!!!
So glad this helped you!
This is a great video and i quite like it. But i was still having a question that where you got those information on Spanish phonetics and phonology from. I have some of my friends majoring in English linguistics and they use English phonetics and phonology - Peter Roach as a curriculum material. I wondered if there were sources where i could get phonetic transcriptions or IPA transcription for Spanish and French. Thank you ❤
You can get books on Spanish phonetics and phonology, but I've found that Spanish linguistics tend to use symbols a bit different from IPA sometimes. It can be confusing going from the Spanish texts I'm familiar with to IPA. If you pay attention to my transcription in these videos, you'll see that I'm sorta inconsistent in my phonetic transcription.
These videos have helped me finally be able to trill the R. It took quite a bit of practice, but I am able to do it.
I'm so happy to hear that!
What worked for you specifically?
@@juliagonzalez9977 Combination of things. Positioning the tongue in the correct position was definitely the big thing. It's ever so slightly different than the way you position the way to pronounce the English t, but it makes all the difference.
This is a good video. I notice that this video like any others that I've watched-none mentions that when you're mouth is dry (and you're first learning), it's a lot harder to make this sound.
I love how you speak, to the point and use oictures. I struggle to understand when ppl start describing which part of the tongue/mouth should be doing what
Thanks for the video! Another tip is to tilt your head backwards, it makes it easier to hold your tongue in the correct position without tensing it.
Thank you
I have discernible success with the techniques taught in this video! But my advice is to find as many examples (tutorials) and sample them all. Each teacher has a style and one of those lessons will help you achieve the trilled "R." This teacher just trilled me the right way. Thank you so much!
"
@@jeromejohnson1954 Gald it worked for you!
I feel like "learning" these kind of things is only possible after "unlearning" what you've been doing a million times.
Unlearning is the most important skills there is--also in general.
@@Hermanus_ interesting perspective. I agree
To be fair, as a native Spanish speaker, it took until I was age 7 for me to start trilling my R’s, and a few more months to get it to a place where it felt natural (yes I remember the process perfectly, and how frustrating it was for me). It’ll just happen if you keep speaking Spanish, but it may take years and years. I remember some kids were even being sent to speech therapy. It’s frustrating for us too.
The alveolar trill is completely out of my phonetic inventory. My tongue cannot vibrate at all, and I have no chance to acquire this sound ever.
Ahh yes, an update to the already great original video. Also, since you did point it out, I just noticed that when I trill my r, it's also asymmetrical, slightly favoring the right side of my tongue.
Great videos as always!
Greetings from the Philippines!
This is by far the most helpful video on how to trill your Rs. I'm finally able to trill my Rs after years of frustration!
I'm so happy to hear that!
This video helped me a lot. Thank you. There are two things I didn't hear mention that might help as well.
It's easier for me to make the trilled r if the air pressure is much higher. Really force the air past the tongue and once it starts vibrating, back it off.
Also I think the position of the lips and cheek are important. I have found it's easier if the lips fairly closed and the cheeks at the corner of the mouth are kind of pinched in. Almost like you're making the eww sound.
Ok, I need to share this. I'm Brazilian (therefore, Latin). Still, I often struggled when trying to pronounce this phoneme (even though we KNOW this sound and how we could make it, he doesn't exist in our language itself, and the great majority of Brazilians don't use it in their dialects, so it still can be difficult as we don't use it), and I was confused on where to place the tip of my tongue. It's pretty wacky that I've learned how to pronounce this Spanish phoneme (of a language which is phonetically similar to Brazilian Portuguese) properly with an (I suppose) American guy, or, anyway, someone who has English as their motherlanguage. This was by far the most unusual way the English language (and having learned it) has ever helped me. Thank you.
I'm so glad this was helpful to you.
I had watched many videos teaching me how to make "rr" sound, just felt confused. But after watching this, I could easily make "rr" sound. Thank you so much for making this video!
Congratulations!
I trill asymmetrically too. When I try to trill symmetrically, I notice that my tongue stiffens a little bit, and the tip of the tongue goes from [ɖ] to [d] but still just behind the alveolar ridge. Strange. Anyway, thanks for the description at the start. Your explanation is way more effective.
Hey there, quick question:
How exactly do I make air pressure in this position? All the air flies out from the sides of my tongue. I understand the manner and location of articulation, but I cannot for the life of me get my tongue to do this.
I know I can, since my native dialect of English uses Alveolar tap quite extensively, so I don’t want to give up on this sound as I’m on the C1 threshold of Spanish and this is the main sound I have yet to master in my pronunciation.
Thank you for the video! It was very high quality.
If the air flies out the sides, you're making pressure, you're just not sealing the sides of the tongue to the upper gum line. You have to make a seal and channel the air out the front.
I have this problem as well, however for me the problem seems go be a tooth I have that grew in kinda weird so I can't really seal my tounge on the sides very well. I can however get the side of my tounge to vibrate if I press the tip into that weird tooth. But that doesn't help me because I have to move it back and to the side which is really unnatural when trying to speak. Any advice?
These tips combined with hearing you thrill, prrrr and brrrr, as well as speak many words with the thrill made a big difference on finally gaining traction on the first stage, vibration. I am feeling tongue vibrate on roof of mouth, but also uvula vibrating and getting irritated. I'm not able to make r then neutral uh sound. Maybe too forceful of expelled air ? It definitely doesn't feel like gargling by any stretch, but uvula vibrating.
I'll keep practicing daily and welcome any other detail or example on what is meant by a "tiny bit of air pressure inside mouth" [minute 5:55]., whilst mouth/lips are actually open.
BTW - Thank you also for the excellent and thoughtful practice plan
Yeah, kind of an important part that's left out in that ambiguous phrasing. I don't know what kind of air pressure he's talking about either.
When I try this, air leaks from both sides of my tongue further back near the rear teeth, making a "double flutter" there. The tongue tip just doesn't move. If I try to stop the side leak then the entire tongue stops fluttering.😢
That's exactly my problem too. Hope one of these videos gets into the details of the "air pressure" part.
How did you go resolving this? The key is to seal the sides, but without making the tongue tense. Think of it as just the side edges of the tongue (next to the teeth? making a seal, but the central of the tongue being very relaxed. As soon as I worked out how to do that, it worked.
Is still hard as a native spanish speaker to explain it but, Like the air pressure thing is like trying to put a lot of emphasis on a "T", using the english D sound 2:18* just as a placement placeholder
Then just trying to let the tongue relax down while doing the strong T, without pulling out the tongue tip/pre-tip as with a normal t, but keeping it in place not so hard/pushy either while producing that small PLOP T sound, pushing a bit of air to the tongue only the tongue tip just like done with the d/t sounds again.
strong enough to produce the "T" but soft enough to not make a Spit Th.
-It doesn't even has to be so hard, but I might be over experienced by nativity as I can make soft trills just pushing a bit of constant air doing a purrrrr.
The rest to go to the final trill goal is hard to explain. But after managing to solve the air leak problem thinking of it as an english D, but voiceless as a "strong T", then just blowing a bit more of air into the tongue like a constant purr and optionally (but common for every trill in general) vibrating the vocal cords too, should help.. I hope at least helps :3
Same problem here.
You don't need to seal the sides of your tongue, that's not how Spanish speakers do it. The important point is that you need to relax your tongue, otherwise it won't work. The best way to get a feel for it is to lie down and just let your tongue lie on the position described in the video (though you can produce a trill at other positions too). Now just push air through, it needs to push its way through between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. It's similar to how you would imitate the sound of a machine gun. If you do it a couple of times lying down with your head bent back, you'll be able to do it in a normal position. The main mistake seems to be that people don't relax their tongue, it needs to be relaxed to start fluttering.
This is so helpful, thank you! Question: Should it sound like a bee buzzing as you are trying to create the vibration? That’s all I’m getting. ( I also end up vibrating my lips!) Just wanted to make sure before I keep practicing it over and over.
I'm not sure how to answer your question. In this video I pronounce trilled r many times. It should sound like that. No lips.
@@tenminutespanish Ah yes, well, I haven’t been able to vibrate my tongue yet. So am I trying to practice something at this point? Or just keep playing with how I place my tongue, then relaxing it (my tongue) and pushing air through it? So far all this sounds like is a buzzing bee
Hi Julia. Try focusing on activity @ 10:38 mimick his sound 'with flair'. Up til then, nothing trilled for me.
Suddenly with Gandulf in mind trills came out with each English word.
Relax and let it flow. Good luck
If people are still struggling, thats okay. I've been trying for weeks to get it and I've started to be able to do it inconstantly after watching dozens of videos. I believe I understand the issue now, and it's that the trilled r uses muscles in the mouth that native English speakers typically just don't use, and when you don't use a muscle, it deteriorates. Watching videos about rolling rs is like watching videos on how to flex your bicep for someone who has never moved their arm before. Theres no trick or secret, you just need to strengthen the muscle by trying to do it frequently. Use the techniques from different videos and just try to replicate it whenever you're alone. You will not get it immediately. You just want to find those muscles and work them out until they are strong enough to do it.
Babies babble for years trying to mimic sounds their parents heard. The only difference between you and the baby is that you never heard this particular sound enough to try to mimic it as a child. So now to get it you basically need to become a baby again and babble until you can do it.
Excellent!
“And that’s it!”
You’re kidding me????? 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
And that's it. Nothing else. Just that. 😊
I just figured it out, I wasn't flattening my tongue enough to create a complete closure. It's been years of being made fun of :) great vid
I don't understand what that video means by "create a tiny bit of air pressure inside your mouth"
Just block the path of air with your tongue, expulse the air, just until you feel a bit of tension behind your tongue
Awesome, I learned how to trill my r from your video a few months back!
Now I have two follow-up questions:
1. I found that depending on the vowels preceding the trilled-r, my tongue tip position varies slightly. For example, when pronunciating "agarrar", my tongue tip is a tiny bit backwards comparing to say, "rojo". Am I doing this right or this is just a bad habit and I should improve consistency over time?
2. Does trilled-r require more airflow in general? I found that I frequently run out of air if the sentence is long, and I couldn't trill it properly. Again, not sure if it's just me.
Great questions. 1. Tongue position is slightly different depending on neighboring sounds. Practice, practice, practice to make the trill as consistent as possible. 2. It should require no more air than is necessary for any other sound. For example, trilled r and "ah" require the same amount of air.
I love your high level of specificity...it really helps. I'm curious if you know anything about how Spanish evolved to have this trilled r? It is a quite noticeable feature and occurs more frequently than any language I've heard. I dare say it is the only language that systematically does this.
Thank you! Spanish trilled r comes from it's Latin precursor. Italian has a very similar trilled r.
Apparently we used to trill in "proper" English..
I feel like Italian has even more trilled rs. Also a lot of Slavic languages have it too
For me, it is getting my voice in there. I can find the placement, flutter my tongue and make that kind of guttural noise. But I cannot engage my vocal cords. Still practicing.
I have the same problem. My tongue is not loose and thin, just fat and wide
Interesting. Good job. French R is still trilled in many regions though, such as Occitanie (30% of the country), Catalogne, French Polynesia, etc. There are 3 Rs in all Romance dialects. Manejar is lenis. Carro is fortis. Para is monovibrante.
Thank for the contribution to the discussion.
I've been trying to trill my r's since I started learning Spanish at age 9. I'm almost 50 now and still can't really do it. I can usually do the sound in isolation, but I have trouble adding it to a word or sentence in a natural way. I feel like I have to stop, trill the r, stop, and then continue. It's especially difficult in a word like "ferrocarril" where I keep stopping and starting. I think I need to work on trilling the r without thinking about it so hard. I've been learning Catalan lately and it's even harder because practically every r is trilled. I'm glad to know that an asymmetrical trill is OK and I don't have to keep working on vibrating only the tip of my tongue. My trill, when I can do it, also goes around the right side of my tongue.
I also find I tend to blow too hard, which combined with the stopping and starting, really calls attention to how hard I am trying. The word comes out more like "ferr o carr il" or even "fe rr o ca rr il" rather than "ferrocarril" because I can't make it flow.
I am going to keep working on it. At least I know I am physically able to make the sound. I always wondered if my tongue was too fat or too muscular or had some other anatomical problem that made the trill impossible. I need to work on relaxing my tongue. I tend to clench my jaw and I think tensing up the tongue goes along with that.
Why am I watching this?? I'm mexican 😂😂
Don't be discouraged if you don't get the r sound right, it took me quite a while to master it and I'm a native.
How long of a while? This sound is present in my native language too, yet after months I still have no success
@@janboreczek3045So this is a very important sound in spanish, but I managed to pronounce it right until I was 11 years old, if I'm not mistaken. So it's normal if it takes you a couple of years. The good thing with Spanish, is that even if you can't roll the r, it's still understandable.
@@mariaijebd1637 Thanks! However, I'm not learning spanish. I'm trying to learn the pronounciation of my native language (Polish), as well as the language I'm learning (Arabic). In both of those languages the trilled r is important, and trying to say my imitations of that sound twice is hard, and often even in normal words those imitations feel unnatural, to the point of my tongue "getting lost" in a normal speech. Also, I'm 26 and I still cannot pronounce it. Despite months of exercising my tongue, with the aid of a speech therapist, the tip of my tongue stubbornly refuses to be even slightly more mobile. For example, I routinely fail with the tapped r in my daily speech (it's one of my substitutes), and when practicing the ddddd (but using the tip of the tongue, not the blade as I've been doing in my ordinary speech) the tongue feels "unresponsive", very much like your arms when you are significantly drunk. And it keeps staying that way despite A LOT of practice and despite a help from the speech therapist
Thank you. I am learning Spanish with comprehensible input.
Good luck to you! Thanks for the comment!
watched countless videos.
This is the best so far. im closer not there yet but get what needs to be done. in time i hope i will
Thank you! You can do it!
@@tenminutespanish I struggle most with the transition from making the noise whilst rolling tongue which largely i can do... to speaking the words. Its as if the way I do it isn't conducive to talking and I hold my mouth in a way that allows me to roll my tongue solely to make the noise but then not translate into a natural speaking rhythm. Hope that makes sense
@@dannygallagherspanish4790 I understand. You should be able to roll your tongue with your mouth in any position. I recommend practicing trilling with your mouth in different positions. Get so you can trill while putting your mouth in many different positions.
@@tenminutespanish thanks so much for the feedback. Will work on that next. Guess i missed a step!
Thanks to this video and putting in some efforts, I think I have mastered the trilled r sound- except when it's preceded by the vowel /i/. Any thoughts?
Some consonant sounds are trickier after /i/, because /i/ is pronounced with tongue high and posterior in the mouth while some consonants are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching somewhere anterior in the mouth. Trilled r, of course, is one of those. All I can say is if you have a good trilled r in other sound combinations, you can figure this out. Practice, practice, practice.
@@tenminutespanish Thanks for your reply. Ok I'll just keep practicing. Newly subscribed but really great content here, keep up the great work.
WOW! I can finally do it. Thank you so much!
I'm so happy to hear this worked for you.
My problem is, the only time I can get my tongue to flutter is when the tip is flat to that spot, not curled back...when it's curled back, it's too stiff and won't flutter
i can say “correr, carro” and stuff like like but i cant hold my rolled r’s for long at all! like im able to do it, but i cant hold it and i cant do it without saying a word with it
Thank you. This works equally well for the alveolar trilled r in Welsh!
@@wayneseex1595 Glad this worked for you @
I can trill and I’m still watching this
This is helpful for mentioning the asymmetric trill. I have a similar problem but worse. My trill entirely comes out on two sides while the tip does not trill. I suspect ii is because the tip is tied by the frenulum.
I learned to relax my tongue by holding my head back, placing my tongue in the right place, blow and my tongue vibrated to roll the r.
Is there any observed variation in the length of the trill with certain dialects? So certain regions or dialects that are more prone to either only have few taps(say 3-4) in the trilled r and others that have more extended trills?
Yes. There are certainly dialects that trill more clearly and purposefully, and others that are more relaxed about it. I couldn't give you a list or anything.
This really makes me sad. I can roll thy back of my tongue like no ones business but I can't get it going on that position to save my life
I guess one thing I want to make sure I'm thinking about correctly, is how the sides of the tongue are in relation to the teeth. The exact moment before pronouncing the English [d] I seem to have a complete pressure seal between my tongue, my molars, and the upper ridge. When releasing that air pressure, I think I'm symmetrically releasing my tongue from both sides of the tongue at the molars and the ridge. I'm guessing besides the tongue tip placement being different, I should expect the way the tongue is releasing the air pressure to be roughly the same? This is actually a bit different than what I had been trying all these years, where I'm only letting the pressure escape at the tip of my tongue instead of all sides, creating a weird whistling noise.
Will still need to practice, not sure if I'm keeping my tongue too tense after pressure release, but I guess this is one more mystery solved in my quest to make this sound.
The pressure release is roughly symmetrical all the way around.
Another great video! Comforting to know that an asymmetrical trill is normal, I thought it was just me getting it wrong as my tongue tends to go towards the left when I do it
same here, my tongue flips towards the left too and i didn't realise that until he said further in the video lol
Just been watching to try and hone it beyond just making a horrific sound, and found out it works so much better for me asymmetrical!
Very cool. Works for me best asymmetrical, too.
Thank you for creating such an informative video that is very understandable for those new to the language. But I do have a couple questions. Would you consider the voiced alvealor trill r to be an apical, subapical, or sublaminal consonant? And wouldn't the Retroflex D (Voiced retroflex plosive
ɖ) position be post-alvealor?
Hey Dan! I'm lucky in that I don't struggle a ton with trilled Rs. However, I find it difficult to pronounce words such as "rural," where one R is trilled and the other is not. Do you have any suggestions? I can say it if I talk very slowly, but not at a pace fit for conversation. Your videos have helped improve my Spanish pronunciation a ton, by the way! Thank you!
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. There's no trick, and there is no substitute for practice.
And thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you like my channel.
My tounge can't even flutter, it just tenses up when I apply air pressure
i've just learned the rolled r after never being able to, i'm just here to make sure
I can't do that lawnmower sound tho 😂 just the rolled in a word, not the isolated rrrr
Thank you sooo much, you've changed my life.
I'm so happy you've found this video useful.
As the other comment says, your tongue does not vibrate if you let air go over it at that position. It simply makes a silly air sound.
As a speaker of Greek, which definitely has a trilled R just like Spanish, I can make my tongue vibrate instinctively. It feels weird that people from other cultures, such as English, can't even understand how to make the sound.
It is very interesting how difficult it can be to make the fine neuromuscular adjustments necessary to pronounce the sounds of other peoples' languages, when native speakers of those languages have no problem making those same sounds. I know a native Russian speaker who can't (or won't?) pronounce the English "th" sound. Instead of "thanks", she says "sh-tanks". She has been living in the US for 25 years and has a job at a university. And lots of people from many language backgrounds pronounce English voiced "th" as in "these and those" like a /d/: "dese" and "dose". It's a very curious fact about learning a foreign language, that that language may contain sounds that you can't even figure out how to produce, and even if you're technically capable of producing the sound, can't develop the habit of producing correctly in streams of natural speech.
I DID IT. I ROLLED MY R.
Congratulations!!
That's interesting. I trill the R perfectly but the point of the tongue where it connects is the top of the tip, not the part shown in the video, meaning it's the upper part of the tip, not the lower or lower-middle. I guess everyone needs to find what works out the best to produce the phoneme.
I've watched 37 videos in the last 31 days on this and I still can't do it.
I can actually vibrate my throat and make the exact same sound but some words I can’t do it with.
I also trill asymmetrically, but I do it on the left side.
Yeah, I just sound like I'm choking lol. I was able to follow until the part where you add air pressure to trill
Great video! I can now kind of do the trill, but it always kind of starts with 'd', like drrrrrr. Do you know how to get rid of that?
@@elenamanus7491 practice, practice, practice, practice.
Hi there! This video did help me get started on trilling my Rs but I can only get about 3 or 4 "beats" before it stops. I can't figure out how to extend it. Is it possible I'm doing something close but incorrect or do I probably just need to keep practicing until I'm more comfortable with it?
There is no substitute for practice.
For everyone having trouble with these kinds of videos, just be aware that some people’s tongue anatomy isn’t conducive to trilling like this. You might have an especially muscular or short tongue that makes trilling virtually impossible.
If that were true, we'd see a spectrum of variation in the ability of native speakers to trill, when in fact we see virtually none. A small percentage of native speakers can't trill, and this is considered a speech impediment, but there is no evidence that this is because of variation in tongue anatomy.
Of course, almost every student of Spanish who can't figure out how to trill believes that he/she has a physical impediment. This is almost certainly not the case.
@@tenminutespanish Without careful examination of learners’ mouths, this seems more of a statistics game. How many of those native speakers are non-Hispanic in race? What is the actual percentage of naive speakers who can’t trill? What’s the percentage of Spanish learners who fail to ever learn to trill? If the speech impediment is not because of tongue anatomy, then what is it-palate shape or nervous system anatomy?
Seems a little premature to just say that the large portion of learners who will never be able to trill are all just failing to follow instructions.
@@georgeofhamilton What makes you think careful examination of people's mouths hasn't been done? People get degrees in Speech and Language Pathology. It's a whole science. And there are specialists in this in Spanish speaking countries. I urge you to do some reading on it. Apart from some well-known conditions such as tongue tie (ankyloglossia) there is no anatomical tongue variation associated with inability to trill r. There are native Spanish speakers of every race. Native Spaniards are white European. Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba have a lot of African ancestry. Many Latin American countries have indigenous Americans. Peru has large numbers of Asians. There isn't any phenotype of humans that appears to have a disadvantage in trilling r. What's more, Spanish isn't the only language that trills r. Italian, Russian, Arabic, Scottish Gaelic, Polish, European Portuguese, Serbian and Croatian, Turkish, and other languages have a trilled r sound. The original peoples who speak these languages are phenotypically very diverse. But what's more, in modern times there are native speakers of these languages from every race on earth.
If any significant number of people were anatomically incapable of trilling r, it wouldn't be a phoneme in so many languages. Think about it. A phoneme is critical for conveying linguistic information. If a significant proportion of the population can't make the sound, or if there is a lot of variation in how the sound is produced based on tongue anatomy, the phoneme can't persist as a useful element. This is basic phonology.
And statistics aren't a "game". They're very useful in fleshing out questions like this. If tongue size and shape were critical to the quality of trilled r, there would be variation in the sound approximating a bell curve. Moreover, men would trill differently from women; fat people would trill differently from skinny people; people of one race would trill differently from another, etc. None of this is the case. And statistics are very useful in making this case.
Native speakers are able trill with almost no exception. (The exception being people with the speech impediment I mentioned.) Non-native speakers who come from a language with no trill have a harder time, and large numbers of them believe they are anatomically incapable. They aren't. They just haven't figured it out.
If you want to make the argument that there is a lot of variation in ability to trill r depending on tongue anatomy, it is incumbent upon you to demonstrate that native speakers of languages that trill r do so differently depending on tongue anatomy. I argue that it is self evidenly not the case. Anyone who has visited any country where they speak a language with trilled r will observe that essentially everyone in a given region pronounces it the same way. (Of course there are dialectal differences, but those are regional, not based on tongue anatomy.)
@@tenminutespanish The facts that you state may be true, and I’ll accept most of them at face value since this issue doesn’t very much concern me and it would be a waste of time to research this subject in depth. But you still don’t establish with certainty that most people who struggle with trilling are simply not utilizing the correct technique.
Ankyloglossia can be present in as much as ten percent of the population, depending on the accepted definition. I’d say that anywhere over two percent could account for the multitudes of people who claim to never be able to trill. These people include the commenters on this tutorial who complain that in every tutorial, there’s a missing “magic step” between relaxing and positioning the tongue correctly, and producing a trill.
That magic step is a failure to identify and explain the intimate mechanics and prerequisites of trilling. If a tutorial could say with certainty that “You need to exercise and build up the anterior end of the tongue muscle” or “The contact area of your tongue should be in a two-to-three ratio with the width of your palate,” it would be more helpful, but it seems that virtually all tutorials assume that this level of detail isn’t necessary.
And we only mentioned one kind of speech impediment.
Furthermore, you yourself mention some variation that exists in trilling in your video: some people including yourself naturally trill more asymmetrically, and you are yet incapable of trilling symmetrically. It may not sound very different to the human ear, but it’s a clear mechanical difference. This could have a lot of possible reasons, including the shape of your tongue, your jaw, your palate, your teeth, and your nervous system. Maybe it’s important to practice trilling from an early age as well to effect the proper phenotype and coax the mouth to mature in a certain way. It’s conceivable that slight further variation could result in a person’s incapability to trill at all. If what you say about demographics is true, perhaps this isn’t closely correlated with race. But that doesn’t preclude other anatomical variation.
So, you can say that most people who struggle with trilling are ultimately capable of it, and I wouldn’t doubt it. But to dismiss the idea that the issue could be anatomical is, again, premature. Here and now, doing so lacks justification.
@@tenminutespanish You aren’t removing my comments, are you?
Edit: Maybe not, but I just posted a long reply that seems to have disappeared.
Hi thanks for this, interestingly I cannot trill an R this way at all, I just make strange noises! however if I place my tongue tip ahead of the D sound test area of the mouth, instead of behind it I get a perfect 'R' trill. My tongue vibrates perfectly just behind my front upper teeth i.e. a quick "R" vibration for single letter R in Spanish and prolong the vibration for double spanish RR words. To be more specific there is a slight rise in the gum behind the 2 front upper teeth, I tend to bounce the rrr vibration off that, works great. I will however practice both methods to see if I can crack this method, great video and thanks again.
i have a tongue tie or Frenulum, ive never ever been able to trill/roll my R's as my tongue just goes completely rigid as a brick. can people with tongue ties roll their R's? do i need a tongue tie release surgery before i can trill my R's? answers please!!!! im learning Russian and loving it, but cannot roll my R's!
Anyone else able to vibrate tongue but when ever the roll occurs it feels like its coming from the tonsel and back of throat? Really hard to get right
What do you mean by building air pressure?
Trilled R in Spanish sounds much like Russian R in some words where R is followed by a vowel
It took me 5 years to finally be able to pronounce the German R. Don’t give up and just keep trying.
yo whats this intro song its so pretty ;-;
Yep. The best. omg. you wouldn't believe what's out there. Using in words and sentences is def. the important last step. Want to use this for singing in Italian -- however, outside of listening to someone sing a particular song ... I'm still a little confused about when they're strong, weak, or no rolls.
I think rules for Italian for trill vs. tap are different from Spanish, and lots of people who sing in Italian aren't natives and get it wrong. I recommend you research it.
The last part is really good, you should focus on that too
I tried this position of the tongue and the tip won't flutter. I relax, I do everything you say (not only you, but dozens of other instructors on YT) and there isn't the slightest movement in the tip. Simply never. All I have been able to do, is move the R from the back of the troat towards the middle of the tongue, but it never affects the tip. Okay, it does flutter when I stick it out like a baby and blow, but only then. And no, weak motor skills is not the problem, I'm a dancer and speak many languages (practicing my mouth's motor skills on a daily basis since I was ten). But after 20 years of struggling I find myself quite discouraged. To be honest I think that there must be more of a genetic component to it; my babysister has always been able to trill her R (and that's not even part of our mother tongue).
If there were a genetic component to it, we'd expect to see variability in different human groups. But we don't. People of every conceivable face shape appear to be equal in their inherent ability to trill. The only exceptions appear to be people with observable significant anatomical variations, such as tongue tie or cleft palate.
I also followed lots of this type of video but couldn't do it. All I could do was vibrate the sides of my tongue. One day I decided to start with this side vibration and try to move it to the tip and that's how I finally got tongue trill.
This was so simple and easy to follow up until the tongue started fluttering. Retroflex D, got it, air pressure might be iffy though because there is no fluttering at the front. Any vibration ends up in the middle or back of the tongue, I know that's not right. I get closer to a whistle than to a flutter up front , hmm.
as someone who natively speaks with a trilled R, alot of native speakers have asymmetrical ones, rare few cant even do it, also its fine if it dies out after a while its not like ur saying perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro yk.
How does he make his r sound so long? I can only do it for a short moment
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice.