In Spanish, there are actually 2 distinct r sounds.
A common struggle for English speakers learning Spanish is learning how to “roll your r’s” or trill. It’s a gesture that’s hard to describe, and some people just never get it. Even some Spanish speakers have a hard time doing it. When you first start learning Spanish, it’s not that big of a deal. Your mouth is still adjusting to the new combination of sounds. However, rolling your r’s and perceiving that sound can be important for distinguishing between words and speaking fluently.
For this post, we’re going to take a look at the IPA chart. The symbols used in this lesson are: For English: retroflex approximant [ɻ] alveolar flap [ɾ] For Spanish: vibrante múltiple alveolar (alveolar trill) [r] vibrante simple alveolar (alveolar flap) [ɾ]
Go to this website and listen to them: http://www.ipachart.com/
In Spanish, there are actually 2 distinct r sounds. They are called “vibrantes” (vibrante simple [ɾ] and vibrante multiple [r]). The multiple is the trill sound which isn't present in standard American English. It distinguishes minimal pairs like perro, carro, and cerro versus pero, caro, and cero. The multiple is also present where r is the first letter in a word. This may not be important when the word is alone, but in a sentence, the sound can make the beginning of words distinct.
The vibrante simple actually exists in standard American English and is called a “flap”. The flap is the r sound in the word pero, but it’s also the sound that occurs in most American English accents when you say words with double t and double d quickly, such as in butter and paddle. Subconsciously, we pronounce those words with the flap rather than with pure t and d.
So, when you see words like pero, caro, and cero in Spanish, it may be helpful to picture them spelled like this: petto, caddo, and cetto.
In English, [ɻ] is usually how we pronounce r’s, and as you can see on the IPA chart, this sound has nothing in common with the r sounds used in Spanish. The r sound in English does not even exist in standard Spanish (though it can be present it certain dialects). Our r is retroflex, meaning the sound is produced by curling the tip of the tongue up towards the roof of your mouth. The vibrantes are alveolar, meaning they are produced with the tip of the tongue on or near the alveolar ridge on the roof of the mouth.