Thread: rr thingy
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Old August 31, 2011, 05:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don José View Post
A friend of mine suffered from that problem. Being a teenager, he wouldn't ask for a 'cigarro' (cigarrete) but for the more colloquial 'pitillo' instead, just to avoid people joking and imitating him. So I wonder if they develop a vocabulary where those rr words are absent.

In Spain it's well known that many foreigners wouldn't pronounce the rr properly. We are used to it and we understand them. However, when speaking Spanish, your english r sounds much better than the French r. A French friend who has been living for many years (at least 10) in Spain can't pronounce the rr yet.

Yeah, I am one of those people who simply can't do the RR. I've tried and tried and tried and the closest I can come is the French R, and even it is unreliable when it comes to my ability to do it.

I think it's interesting that you say the English R sounds better than the French R. Why is that? Because with a French R there at least is a roll, even if it sounds a little different. (To me, they sound very similar.) But with an English R, there is no roll.

I want to make sure I am understood. I'd also prefer to not sound ridiculous. Would you suggest that I pronounce RR words--as well as words that begin with R--simply like a hard English R instead of attempting to roll it French-style?

I remember talking once to a Guatemalan Spanish about the word "rey." I pronounced it simply like the English word "ray," which he seemed to find quite unacceptable, ha ha.

I also am concerned about how to make the differentiation between words like caro/carro and pero/perro.
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