How do I trill an 'rr'? One of the following suggestions may help:

A. (My adaptation from Camino Oral, Teschner, 2000, pp 160-162.) Follow the steps faithfully:

1. Pronounce the Spanish simple "r" (such as in the words para, coro, mira, pura, etc.). The point of articulation of your tongue should be alveolar (such as when pronouncing the underlined segments of the following English words: riding, Betty, Freddy, knotty). However, the "r" should not be voiced (you should not feel your Adam's apple vibrate).
2. Now, keep your tongue in that same position, with the same tenseness, etc.
3. Next, tightly and powerfully exhale a long stream of air, while maintaining the tounge position. The air stream will make your tongue vibrate several times.
4. Finally, voice the sound (use your voice chords, make your Adam's apple vibrate). Hopefully you have produced the Spanish trilled "r".
5. Practice sentence: Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril, rápido corren los carros cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril.

B. "Believe it or not, being able to gargle definitely helps! Start gargling and while gargling bring the tongue up behind the upper teeth. With a little luck, the vibrations move up the tongue and the tip starts "rolling the rr". This is not a surefire method--I doubt if one really exists!--but it has worked with a few of my students." (From Larry Conver)

C. "... repeat "pa da ti" over and over and speed up with each repetition." (From Helen Fountaine)

D. I use the book "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss. Pages 49-59 contain a veritable plethora of English words which require the tongue to move in a manner similar to that required by the r in Spanish: puddle, battle, paddle, tweetle, beetle, muddle, bottle . . . I ask for a student volunteer to read through several pages aloud as fast as possible. I then ask if anyone else thinks they can do it faster. After several attempts, we conclude with a discussion of what the tongue is doing when it makes the tap r and the rolled r sounds and I point out instances in the Dr. Seuss book where students are making those same sounds (for the most part). Finally, I tell them that the trick is to simply force more air through their mouth while their tongues are in the appropriate position, which will make their tongues move faster and eventually result in the rolled r sound. I'm not sure how successful that technique has been, but I have had students tell me that it really helped them. For a more concise explanation, I ask them to say: bitter, batter, butter as fast as they can and as many times as they can within a few seconds. This shows them that their tongues already know how to make the sound in English. Next, I just tell them to try to speed the sound up. We conclude by practicing with Spanish words and tongue twisters. -----Cherice Montgomery

F. One way of teaching students to roll their r's is to have them say "pot of tea" very quickly several times. At least that way they know where the tongue should go in order to be able to roll their r. For gracias, they can pronounce it gdacias and accomplish that as well. As one who had to learn how to roll my rr's, I advocate locking yourself in a room and making funny sounds until it comes out. It worked for me! ----Judy

G. Try adding a "d" to the "r" sound you use currently. Over time it approximates a trilled "rr".

H. The trilled "rr" is similar to the sound we make when mimicking a cat purring, or the machine-gun sound or race car sound that some of us made growing up.