How to Roll Your R's, Step-by-Step [Spanish Pronunciation]

I've been speaking Spanish for 12 years but actually gave up on the rr and just accepted I had a speech impediment 😅Came back to it recently because I also need it for Arabic and found this video really helpful. Funnily enough, I can now do it, but only if I sing the word! I think this helps me control the airflow - if I try to trill normally, I still seem to be forcing the air too hard. I'll keep practicing!

As a Spanish speaker I can confirm similar exercises are used when we're learning to speak properly as a toddler or primary student. At school, in Castellano classes they spent hours teaching the position of the tongue and lips, believe it or not even for Spanish speakers is tricky. More importantly, this is how we spot non-spanish speakers we can hear the accent if they can't use the 'r'.

I SWEAR I'VE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE THIS SOUND FOR 3 YEARS AND I HAVE AN EXAM TOMOROW AND I SOMEHOW MANAGED TO DO IT THANKS TO YOU

As a native speaker, the rolling r's came naturally as a toddler. Your technical advice is outstanding and exactly how I roll the r's. Now, when people ask me how I make the sound, I can explain it instead of just demonstrating it. Thank you!

This video is a bit old now but I just wanted to say that your “ara” trick is what got me to finally start rolling! I was doing the whisper “ara” all day for only a day and already got a small roll. I even was able to do it with the word “arriba”. After the whisper I’ve gradually brought the volume up until now I have the voice included! I can say those words and others like “carro” no problem. The er words like “perro” still present trouble for me so I’m still practicing a lot every day. After watching a ton of videos I just wanted to thank you for your tips that helped!

This "ara" trick must be some kind of linguistic black magic bc as of writing this comment it's been ~1 hour since i googled how to roll my R's and as someone who has never been able to do it their whole life (I'm 22) your ara trick is starting to give me the tiniest of micro-trills. I'll definitely keep this up

4000 videos later and still nothing.

This was the best explanation of why it's difficult for English speakers to roll the r's. I never would have guessed tongue placement on the preceding letters would be a factor. A little late on commenting, but thank you so much for this.

Made more progress in 30 minutes than I did in 30 years... muchas grrrrrracias!

I started my duolingo Spanish journey a couple a weeks ago. It was almost derailed because I could not roll my R's to save my life. This video has restored my hopes. I can't roll my R's at will yet But after a couple of days of practice while driving to and from work, I've been able to bang out a few R rolls. From 0 to a few has me thinking, there's still hope out there for me yet. Thank you so much for your simple break down.

I've been learning Spanish for 8 years, and I was never able to pronounce the r or rr correctly. At some point, I got frustrated and simply "accepted my fate". Now I am a Spanish student at university preparing for the intake exam to become a conference interpreter. Of course with this job I can't have a bad pronunciation. So this is my motivation to get back to practicing my r. I have 4 months till the exam, I hope I will make it

This is very well explained. One factor that makes it unusual for English speakers, is that the 'r' in English is a soft sound, sometimes almost inaudible, and never rolled. I am half Spanish and English, and when I was a young boy I was taught to say the following Spanish sentence by my cousins to help with "rolling" the Rs (apical-alveolar trill) El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo, porque Ramón Ramírez se lo ha cortado. My advice is, as well as following the tips in this video, to focus on the sound production with a bit of forced air explusion at the same time, at least until the trill becomes easy and natural to produce. Eventually, you'll be able to let it "roll off your tongue". This requires concentration and effort at the time of producing the sound, but it will get easier and more natural over time. Listen to how Spanish people say it and imitate the sound as close as possible. Not all Spanish speakers choose to make the 'R'' sound as strong as others, as there are regional variations, but it's always clearly audible. An often confusing thing for Spanish speakers is when they don't hear the clear "R" sound at all, because that could sound like another word, a different verb conjugation or a nonsensical word. So, effort in making both the R sounds is important to be clearly understood in conversations. Have fun with it, it's a great sound really!

It really helped me how you mentioned that we need to be using the Spanish consonants rather than English consonants! While I can't make the RR sound by itself, I can make a sound that almost passes as RR when it's in a word. I will keep practicing. I'm a nursing student and I am relearning spanish since there are spanish-speaking patients at the hospital. Thanks for your helpful video!

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!! I am 38 years old and have never been able to do this. I figured I would never be able to do it. BUT, with your video I figured it out. WOW! No joke! I can do it now. Thank you so much for this video. I just ran across it looking for something else and decided to click on it. I'm so glad I did. 😂

I actually already speak to languages that need that rolled “r”: Ukrainian and Russian, but could never do it. Now when I decided to learn Spanish, I it’s finally time for it, though I know there some difference to them. (I saw how Chinese people on TikTok learned it simply because some Russian song got viral and got embarrassed)

I think I've tried something like 4 different 'how to roll your r's' videos on Youtube, and this was the only one that actually worked for me. It took time, but I can finally roll my r's. Thank you.

I'm Spanish but I'm always interested in phonetics. The way you explain everything feels super useful. And made me extra aware of my tongue positioning when speaking Spanish versus English. Like the "L" and chaining those sounds with the R. It's impossible to say things correctly! No wonder some people have a really hard time with the Spanish R. Great video!

One of my professors once told me that I just speak with an Argentinian accent😅 My rr sounds have never been reliable, throughout the ~15 years I've been speaking Spanish. I hugely appreciate your ability to get back to basics!

Today I finally got it! I have been practicing daily for around 5 weeks or so , but have been wishing for this since I was a kid. I wished for it so much and it felt impossible. This video was the one that taught me to do the right thing to finally be able to trill! Muchísimas gracias Breakthrough Spanish !!!!

Out of all the videos out there, this is the only video that had me trilling within 15 minutes of practicing! That "ara" exercise really works! Also, I love how you explain it's not just about relaxing your tongue and how other consonants can affect how you trill; I haven't seen any other person explain that in their videos. I'm almost 30 and I get made fun of from my family that I still don't know how to roll my r's. You gave me hope that I can do it. Thank you so much!!