Spanish Erre (R)

[baraklevy]

So first of all, I'm new here. It's nice to meet you all.
My name is Barak, I'm 17 years old (In a week, but still :P) and I'm from Israel.

I've been studying Spanish for like a month now, and I'm having some problems with my accent.
My problem is with my Spanish R (Erre). I know how to pronounce the trilled R, but for some reason, I have no idea how to spell the non-trilled-R.
I had looked all over on Youtube, but I only found some videos about how to pronounce the trilled-R, not the regular one.

I wanted to know if you guys could help me with my little problem. And tell me what's the different between the trilled R and the normal R.

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to ask this question, but I hope it's the right one.

Thank you very much, and I hope I'll have a great time here.

[Jessica]

I have big problems with that too!

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums!

The letter r (not the letter rr) in Spanish has two different pronunciations. It is slightly trilled before consonants (as in tarde) and at the end of a word (as in hablar) and it is clipped when it falls between vowels (as in era).

Tell me what your mother tongue is and I'll be able to teach you the pronunciation based on something you already know.

[baraklevy]

When you say "Mother tongue", I suppose you mean mother language?
Well then, my mother language is Hebrew, since I was born in Israel. :P
The Hebrew R is quite like the French R, but it's a little softer.
I had looked into the "Erre", and saw that I made a mistake. What I meant was that I know how to pronounce the "Erre" sound, but not the "ere" sound.
So, when the R is before a consonant or at the end of a word, is it like a 1-trilled-Erre?
I still need to find out about the "clipped" Erre, because I don't think I've heard it yet.

Thank you very much for your help.

[Jessica]

yeah mother tongue is same as mother language *nods*
and welcome

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by baraklevy

When you say "Mother tongue", I suppose you mean mother language?
Well then, my mother language (native language/native tongue) is Hebrew, since I was born in Israel. :P
The Hebrew R is quite like the French R, but it's a little softer. (The French R is not the same as the Spanish R. This is one of the reasons you're having difficulty. The Spanish R is nothing like the English R, either.)
I had looked into the "Erre", and saw that I made a mistake. What I meant was that I know how to pronounce the "Erre" sound, but not the "ere" sound. (You made no mistake. I understood that you already know how to pronounce the trilled R.)
So, when the R is before a consonant or at the end of a word, is it like a 1-trilled-Erre? (Yes, it is trilled, but usually not as long as the rr.)
I still need to find out about the "clipped" Erre, because I don't think I've heard it yet.

Thank you very much for your help.

This podcast will help you pronounce the clipped r.

[CrOtALiTo]

I bid you welcome, you are free ask us.

[baraklevy]

Thank you all for your help. My only with the R/RR is the clipped R, but I'm sure that I will make it after a few times.

[sosia]

Sure. Welcome to the forums

[literacola]

Start by saying the word better over and over and note the position of your tongue when you say the double tt. Immediately switch to saying the word era until your tongue is in that same position while on the letter r in era.

They are almost the exact same sound. This is how I learned. Once you get it right you will know because the position of your tongue feels exactly the same.

[Rusty]

I use this approach with speakers of American English. I don't know how he pronounces better, so I chose not to mention it to him.

[CrOtALiTo]

I think, you could to say Tee, Tee, that in really you are saying TT, I don't know if I'm correct or better said, If I'm explaining you well this topic.

[Rusty]

Crotalito, if you're not a native speaker of American English, you won't understand what we're talking about. In colloquial American English, during normal conversation, we pronounce the double tt sound in the word better exactly like you pronounce the r in the Spanish word era.

[Planet hopper]

I agree, Rusty, it's very similar, any inter-vocalic t, like water, what a day

Not long ago there was another thread on pronouncing the r, the one we ended up putting youtube videos, and tongue twisters.

Here's the link:

http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthread.php?t=2824&page=2

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by literacola

Start by saying the word better over and over and note the position of your tongue when you say the double tt. Immediately switch to saying the word era until your tongue is in that same position while on the letter r in era.

They are almost the exact same sound. This is how I learned. Once you get it right you will know because the position of your tongue feels exactly the same.

Remember that's only helpful for speakers of North American English, because we have what's called the North American flap or North American tap which is an alveolar tap where the tongue taps the alveolar ridge. In other versions of English, they don't use this. For example, when I say "battery", it's 3 syllables (ba-du-ree), but for other speakers, principally of British English, it would be 2 syllables (ba-tree).

[abbey]

Quote: Remember that's only helpful for speakers of North American English, because we have what's called the North American flap or North American tap which is an alveolar tap where the tongue taps the alveolar ridge. In other versions of English, they don't use this. For example, when I say "battery", it's 3 syllables (ba-du-ree), but for other speakers, principally of British English, it would be 2 syllables (ba-tree). end quote.
Actually I tried this method after I read it, and I say "better" with the "t" sounding like a "t", not an "r". If it was meant to be sounded as an "r" then it should be spelt with an "r". There is no accounting though, for some areas to distort English. Anyway back to using "better" with a t sound, and then I tried "era" and it works very well. My "r" then sounds just like the spanish "r". Thats great.
Incidentally, I say "battery" exactly as it is spelt. bat-ter-y, and sound the t as a t. I found when I was learning Spanish, it was very consistent with its rules, and everything was pronounced. Even though English does have a lot of weirdly pronounced words, it is a pity to make it worse using "common usage" as an excuse. I admit I will probably be boo-ed down, so please don't bother. This is just my point of view, as everyone is entitled to.

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums, Abbey! I believe you're our only Australian.

Just for your future reference, if you click the button marked Quote, the text someone else wrote is automatically included in your post.

[abbey]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Welcome to the forums, Abbey! I believe you're our only Australian.

Just for your future reference, if you click the button marked Quote, the text someone else wrote is automatically included in your post.

Yes, thanks for that. And I am just seeing all the smileys to the right, that I didn't see before. I used the keyboard colon and bracket.

And we could get some nice differences in pronunciation too. Most of the Australians do not speak like Paul Hogan (a movie actor a few decads ago, very famous then as Crocodile Dundee), he overemphasised the "ockker" aspect, I would suggest an accent like Nicole Kidman's is "good" Australian. Actually, there is some English here in Australia, one which is spoken so fast, with word endings clipped, that I cannot understand, now that can't be said to be a good model. However, it just goes to show there are so many variations even within the same country.

[CrOtALiTo]

For that reason, I putted in my previous post, what I didn't know if I was explaining you exactly well the questions, I'm sorry for the commentary.

[baraklevy]

Well I'm from Israel, so even pronouncing the American R is difficult for me. I'm not quite sure if I know what you're talking about, since I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing my T in the word "better" well (Should I say "well" or "good"?).