How to roll your Rs (and what most tutorials don't cover)

Date Originally Created: March 6th, 2024

Diagram of positions in mouth for pronouncing R in different languages

You may be learning a language that requires you to roll (trill) your Rs, but if your native language is English or another language where this doesn't really happen, then you may have tried following those tutorials and articles on how to do it, just for you to end up making a hissing noise instead of that trilled R. Well, hopefully, this article will help. I accidentally found out how to do it years ago, and it's barely like most the tutorials say (only a little bit). I prefer not to call it a rolled R, because there's no rolling at all. It's trilled. Your tongue is fluttering.

1. The English R

Why is this in here? Well, this is actually one of the steps! You know how the back of your tongue goes up and a bit back when you say an R in English? Well, this is one of the steps to actually get the airflow needed in order to trill your R. Reason I put this in here is because out of all of the articles I read on this subject, ONLY ONE OF THEM SAID THIS, and frankly, it's how I and everyone I know gets their Rs trilled, including native Spanish and Russian speakers I know.

2. The Tapped R

I'm assuming that you already know how to do the single tapped R (if not, it's similar to the "tt" in "butter", or the "dd" in "ladder", you're basically touching your tongue to the alveoler [that ridge on the roof of your mouth]). So now that you have the back of your tongue in the position you'd have it with an English R, at the same time, you wanna move the front of your tongue in the motion you'd do for the single tapped R, and if you do it fast, you might find that you just rolled your R. If not, then make sure your tongue is relaxed, and that you have the same airflow as you would if you were to say "shh" really quick as if shushing someone who's saying that taxes are a good thing.

I hope this article helped, I know it didn't help people like me, but hopefully it helped one of you out there. I noticed I got a consistent trilled R when doing the English R at the same time, and I only saw that in one tutorial. ONE. And I personally think it's one of, if not the most important step in it besides touching your tongue to the alveoler (that ridge on the roof of your mouth).