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 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'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 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!

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

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!

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!

I am learning spanish because I made a very strange Mexican friend who encouraged it and this helped SO MUCH

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. 😂

Here's a little ditty I was taught in Kindergarten in Cuba: "Erre" con "erre" cigarro, "erre" con "erre" barril. Rapido corren los carros, por las lineas del ferrocarril.

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!

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.

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

Thank you so much for this video. I've been unsuccessfully trying to roll the R's for so many year, but by the time I finished watching your video and practicing while I watch, I was able to roll the R's at the end of this video.

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!!

As part of regaining neurological function, including a latent stammer I decided to learn languages the main being Spanish, French and Italian. The biggest drop was realising that the rrs in each one are made in different parts of the mouth. It requires exercising the tongue to tone it up, it is a muscle which needs to be strong, supple, and flexible. I find it is counterproductive to focus when having a chat, but that is when it started to come natural. Strange things we humans.

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

4000 videos later and still nothing.

From 2:25 to 4:25! Adjusting the consonants from the English pronunciation to the Spanish seems to be the key for me. That is the part of this video that is most helpful to me, thanks!! (Also... three to six months? I've been studying and practicing for two years, and I think I'm *starting* to get there with rolling my rrrrr's!!) Just don't give up! Even if you never get there - there's more to learning and speaking another language than the pronunciation of a single consonant sound. Imo.

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!

I've been able to roll my r's since I was a child but I assumed it was just some weird mouth noise, maybe 6 years ago I realized that my weird mouth noise was probably rolling my r so I asked a family friend if that's what it was and she told me no. I am just now watching this video realizing that I was in fact rolling my r's and was lied to for some reason, thanks for this video.

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 !!!!

It seems to me kind of similar to how I learned to snap my fingers or to hold chopsticks later in life. I didn't learn this as a kid and just learned some years ago. I'm now 40 years old and I'm just now learning this trick. It seems like if you do it a specific way it's much easier but you need to do it that way, the tip about keeping my tongue in a specific place behind my teeth and letting it bounce but not forcing it seemed to do the trick. I'm noticing a slight trill and the funny thing is it seems to happen naturally but the harder I try the worse I do which goes along with what was said about not forcing it. I guess it is a bit counterintuitive in that way so now that I've seen some progress I'll just have to keep practicing and I trust that hopefully I'll have it down in not much time. The fact that I even managed to do a slight trill within minutes has me feeling pretty good like I leveled up and feeling like maybe there's some hope for me getting this after all these years ❤😂

I could trill, but it was an extended sound that went on a bit too long. By adding air, I can now make a shorter more natural sound. Thanks for this!

I've seen so many videos on how to do this, and none of them helped except this one

I've been speaking Italian my whole life with my family (I still don't know much but hey lol) and I'm learning Spanish right now and I can't roll an R to save my life! I swear something is wrong with my tongue! Hopefully this video can help! Thank u for making it!

I only started taking up the practice recently. I have absolutely zero patience and have been binging videos and sounding like a lunatic trying to get this down... it wasn't until that very last tip at the end with car+ro and your brain wanting to put the sounds together that BANG rolled. I'll have to practice a ton to get it fluid and under my control, but now that I know the method works I'm super jazzed to try it. Thank you!

I just discovered I had been doing the r wrong (somehow between my teeth) this quickly made me get the proper sound! Thank you!

You are wonderful as a pronunciation coach! The "ara" practice is invaluable! After living in Oaxaca for 10 years and having intermittent problems with rolling "r" sounds, the burst-of-air practice helped me identify the problem and correct it.

Holly cats! That did the trick! I'm not there yet, but like a few folks here I gave up on trying to roll my 'r's. But changing the way I pronounce t in 'tres' like you said, makes all the difference. Remarkable...thank you!

I am english speaker living as immigrant to Mexico. I am currently taking espanol classes, with friends and our good friend, Mexican Maestro. It has taken me about a year to get somewhat able to roll r by practicing over and over speaking reviews in Duolingo and then having my Maestro listen to me. (BTW he does not emphasize we roll r. My Latina friends, including Maestro, tell me that, as children they were given "dittys" to practice to learn to roll r. You are not born with the ability and, for most people, they do have to practice it, a lot, even if they are native spanish speakers. And, THERE Are espanol speakers who can't roll r. I am told they get teased about this.

This video was a lifesaver! I’ve been trying to learn how to trill for years but I never got it down until watching this video!! I literally learned it in 5 mins. I used your advice on the “ara” as well as separating the word like carro & looking in the mirror while doing it helped with tongue placement

This is one of the most informative videos I've found, on explaining where the rolled r occurs and when to use it. I've just started learning Spanish and I surprised myself by managing to figure it out very quickly over a couple of days by doing a singer's trick which is to use the breath from the diaphragm. I really could not roll my Rs at all before this. The way I found was to put a hard *C* in front of a word like *rapido* to make *CRAPido* (ha ha) , send a blast of air from your diaphragm *NOT* your chest and then slowly try and cut away the *C* which acted like training wheels. By using the diaphragm you are removing tension from the mouth and tongue which might otherwise occur if you try and push air from your chest, because you will naturally default to trying to pushing with your throat. Words that start with *R* are easy (rojo, radio) but perro, sonreir are still tricky although you have confirmed that the best way to practice is to break up the word into chunks until you have the coordination down.

Love the way you speak, so calm and relaxing.

I like your patient and gentle approach.

This is by far one of the most effective videos I watched. The 'ara' trick worked very fast after a few trials, surprisingly, and adding the air pressure even made it better to get a few more rolls. I still can't keep it as long as I want, but thank you for this great video.

It's very much like the sound of a cat's purr. As you said the tip of the tongue touches the hard palate and air is gently expelled until your tongue taps repeatedly and you sound like a purring cat.

Just wanted to say , thank you ..The things you are saying are actually resonating very well. I speak French and Farsi, so have had a hard time rolling my Rs for the longest time.Graciasss!

Thanks to you I know I'll be able to master rolling my 'r's and I'm so excited! The 'ara' trick is what the secret is. I have NEVER been able to figure this out, but now thanks to your excellent tutorial there's hope for this 62 year old Hispanic who's trying to learn Spanish!!!! Thanks so so much!

Thank you, so much!!!!! This helped me tremendously!

Love the whispered "ara" tip and it's not one I've found elsewhere. Thanks! Subscribed!

Omg thank you so much for this video! Within a few minutes, I've already improved!! Incredibly helpful!!!

Thank you. I had heard most of these things before, but I like the aspect of taking it as a process of practice rather than a trick. I feel like a fluent Spanish speaker, but not rolling my r's has been a bummer for the last few years. Things that helped me get some progress that I didn't get before: 1. The only 'breathing 'ara' activity repeatedly throughout the day 2. Honestly the idea of telling myself that this could be a process of three to six months. Made my brain more patient, and that made me more relaxed, and once I was relaxed I started making progress, also because I finally had the patience to practice every day instead of try and get it done in 30 minutes or never. 3. @gheard1000 's comment about saying 'pot of tea' several times really fast throughout the day. I did that a bit, and changed the 't' sounds with spanish 'd' or 't' sounds. After all that I took myself through reading a short story very slowly and focusing on every syllable of pronunciation, which I haven't done in a long time, and I said 'perro' and heard a little glimmer of 'rr' sound. It's very relieving to see progress after 4 years. Thank you!

Omg. This is amazing. Muchas gracias.

Thank you! I can finally feel the vibration on my tongue! :D This is huge progress for me

Wow. Best video I’ve ever found on this. Thanks for the useful advice

Yep just looked at this video, slept on it & I can now trill a bit. Found it v difficult because it's difficult not to do the uvular trill but practicing using this advice definitely helped

I'm going to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Puerto Rico, so I really needed to learn to roll my Rs! This video took me from not being able to roll them at all to being able to use a rolled R in sentances in just about a month, way faster than I expected!

THIS is what I’ve been needing! Ahra was the start and everything else was just amazing!! Thank you for including the position of the tongue and air flow/breath too! Just everything in this video I needes

This is super helpful!!! Especially the "hadda" part! Immediately get my tongue working!

this was amazing! thank you so much! I've been struggling with the r in the middle of words after a consonant sound, and I think I finally got it!

Since I was a child, I'm 65 now, my pronouncing words with double rr looked like this. I'd gone years feeling so extremely frustrated since my family speaks Spanish and Arabic. My mom would tell me its a good thing she understood me because no one else would 🥲. No matter what I did I couldn't get it right😭😞, I even took 2 years of Spanish, so I just kept🤭. I don't know how I stumbled across your video, maybe mi madre 😇guided me. Estoy aprendiendo mucho de usted. I knew nothing about the t's and how keeping my tongue against the back of my teeth would be so helpful. Agradecer usted tan muy mucho☺🤗.

Thank you for this fantastic video. I watched a lot videos, but no video helped me. With your method I learned it in nearly 2 weeks. Thanks!

I was getting so stressed not being able to do it and this video was such a calmer take to it. I love the fact that it emphasizes that it is something you have to practice and not something you can get right away.

You're a legend. This is the only technique that's ever worked for me. Thank you!

Very helpful and good explanations that are easy to understand. Thank you!

I can do these little trills thanks to you as well as saying “para ti” over and over. However the challenge for me is when the R is at the beginning of the word specifically with “Ro” words rojo or Rosa. It throws my whole mouth off! I don’t have a letter to roll it off of so it leaves me lost!

Thank you! This is actually the only video that helped me a lot in understanding what I'm doing wrong all this time and now, I could roll my r just need a lot more practice to do.

5//2023 I have been working although passively on my spanish for a long time. Once I hit the thril sound I about gave up. Because of this vid I have almost caught up to where I should have been much sooner! Thank you. Many thanks! muchas gracias!😊

I’ve just learned to roll my tongue in one hour wtf. This video was a gift from god

I did it!! For the first time in all videos and clips this is my first success! Thank you!❤

This helped a lot really helped me understand.

Omg, I have just done it first time since I learned how to do ‘rrr’ sound. Thank you so much for your tutorial and tips, It helps me a lots.🎉🎉

Muchas gracias!

thank you for addressing the positioning of your tongue when pronouncing consonants in English- that is 100% my problem and hardly anyone speaks to it!

This is incredible advice.

dude! this is first video that helped! breathing "ara" was the key to my first time ever rolling my r

Great ideas, thanks!

this helped so much thank you

As a viejito English teacher, I really admire you for analyzing this seemingly hopeless sound and giving us a way to relearn "r" in a Spanish context. I have to use similar methods as I try to correct adult learners with engraved pronunciation errors. I totally believe you when you say it took 14 months to develop your teaching platform. Good job!

Dude! The tip to change positions was the key. Just lifting my chin made everything slip into place.

Very helpful! Thank you! I hum the trill to the tune of Jingle Bells and it seems to help my tongue get the hang of it.

WOW, I did it while watching your video. I've been trying for months! When you said change position. I was already lying in bed on my laptop. I just tilted my head back so my tongue would relax against the top of my mouth. It worked basically instantly.

helped me a lot

the 'ara' made the trick for me! It's a great exercise to make the tounge vibrate and get used to it. Muchas gracias!

Hey I learned after this video!

This is really helpful................ Thank you for your detailed explanation 😭

thank you really good guide

This is my first day so I don't know yet if it works for me, but I've watched lots of videos about it and the way you break it down makes it feel achievable and now I feel like I have some starting blocks! Thank you! I'll update after I put in the work!

I have been speaking in Spanish for many years, but still cannot pronounce RR correctly. The tips like "Car+ro" and putting the tongue in the correct position are really helpful.

Quick tip for an approximation to the soft r sound: Take the fast pronunciation of "tomato" and try to replicate the sound of the second t

Thank you so much for this! I know quite a bit of Spanish, but I am struggling with rolling my rs correctly, so I'm not very comfortable holding a conversation. Will keep practicing! 🤗

that is a really useful tip, thank you

Omg I did it! Thank you!

Tank you. It’s a real help

I'm not quite 100% there yet, but your advice has helped me massively. Thanks!

I've always been able to roll my r's but never after a consonant - this is the most helpful lesson I've ever had. Thanks!

The method I learned was to practice the tongue movement by going "diddy diddy diddy diddy doddy doddy doddy doddy, deddy deddy deddy" and so on with all the vowel sounds for at least a month. After a month or so, I could get a few flips and would just practice the rr sound with different words. It probably would work better combined with your method.

Muy buen video. I just shared it with an American guy who I correct every day.

Gracias! muy útil el video soy profe de español y realmente es difícil enseñar esto y tener éxito

OMMMMMMG ARA practice works！！！！Thank you

Thank you!!!

Thank you so much for breaking down the trill r sound. Coming from Texas and getting rid of that Texas twang + getting the trill down has been very difficult, since most teachers do not explain the placement of the tongue. Maybe there is still some hope!

Appreciate the video!

As a native German speaker I'm used to the French 'R' or Arabic 'غ'. I managed to pronounce the English non-trilling 'r', but up to now have failed to trill like they do in Bavarian German dialect, Italian, Spanish and Arabic 'ر'.

I think this is the best video I have watched on how to roll your rs so far because, based on simple examples, I noticed a very tiny but big difference!