National Hispanic Heritage month (Sept 15–Oct 15) celebrates contributions and influence of Latino (or Latinx) Americans to US culture.
As a linguist, I particularly enjoy celebrating aspects of language as part of culture! Since many language textbooks focus on grammar and vocabulary, I love to fill in the gaps when it comes to pronunciation. I can be the Accent Whisperer that gives you the secret decoder ring to sounding authentic in a “second language” (meaning a language you learned non-natively as an adult regardless of how many languages you have under your belt). The question I hear from many of my English-speaking clients studying Spanish (and wanting to avoid sounding like a gringo)—and also from my Spanish-speaking clients modifying their English pronunciation is:
What is the difference between Spanish R and English R?
And that’s a great question—but the answer is complex. Below, I’ll highlight some key differences (as there are many) between Spanish and English Rs in pronunciation.
Before we dive in, let me note that for this explanation, that
- For Spanish*ː I’ll concentrate on the Spanish accent common in much of South America and Castilian Spanish (castellano)—as they articulate their R sounds similarly.
- For English**ː I’ll focus on the dialect widely recognized as a “Standard American English” (SAE) or “General American English” (GAE).
- A bit of a personal backstory: My inspiration for this topic is my own journey into Spanish learning, as the highpoint of my college career was a two-semester study abroad at la Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. There, I immersed myself in the Spanish language and ended up with a double-major in linguistics and Spanish. In my professional career, one of my favorite jobs was teaching English as a Second Language to Spanish-speaking adults at Patchogue-Medford Union Free School District’s Adult Literacy Program in Huntington Station, NY where I heard many dialects of South and Central American Spanish as well as Mexican and Caribbean Spanish. I also have friends from around the globe and live in NYC – so I relish the diverse audio tapestry of accents that I get to hear on a daily basis.
So, let’s dive in and map out some of the key differences between “Spanish R” and “American English R”:
“Spanish R”:
Spanish has two kinds of R sounds (which are two separate phonemes)—the tap/flap as in pero (but) and the trill as in perro (dog). Let’s look at how to articulate them, what they sound like, and where to use them.
1) The “tap” or “flap” sound: Touch the tongue tip to the hard palate (the alveolar ridge or gum ridge just behind your top teeth to be exact). Pronounce R this way when you see a single “r” in the spelling between vowels—including across word boundaries—and after certain consonants—p, b, t, d, c [k], g, and f sounds (with the exception of some prefixes like sub-). English actually uses this same sound but not for an “r” spelling. It occurs in certain words with t or d like “butter” or “buddy.”
Tip for English speakers: if you want to correctly pronounce the “r” in “caro,” think of the way you’d pronounce the last two syllables of “avocado” in English, namely that fast-action “d.”
2) The “trill” sound: Blow the tongue tip as it lightly touches the hard palate (that alveolar ridge again)—causing the tongue tip to quickly vibrate and repeatedly touch the ridge. The quick rule of thumb is to pronounce R this way where you see the double R (“rr”) in the spelling OR when a word begins with “r.” PRO TIP: You’ll also hear the trill where “r” occurs after l, n, or s, although this is not a very common sound combination in Spanish. For phonetics fans: that trill after l, n, and s happens because those are alveolar consonants—meaning they’re also made with the tongue tip touching the alveolar ridge. And I have a SpeechFox theory on why. Because the trill is also alveolar, it would be hard to sound the tap/flap after a sound where the tongue is already resting there—so to make it audible, it needs to differentiate a bit more from the previous sound. Now, if you’re wondering, “But what about after t or d? Aren’t they also alveolar according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?” Good question! While those sounds can be made with the tongue tip, they are more dentalized in Spanish—the tongue tip and part of the tongue right behind it (apical and laminal) touch closer to the teeth than the alveolar ridge—so the tongue position and airflow allow a tap (not a trill) to surface… so we can both articulate and hear these sounds in combination, as in trabajo and dramático.
Finally, if you want to place extra emphasis on an “r” before a consonant or at the end of a word, one might trill there as well, as in, “Estoy harrrrrto de…” (I’m sooo fed up with…”)
Tip for English speakers: To execute the trill, place the tongue where the “tt” in better occurs, then try blowing an extended gust of air at the tongue, which should vibrate the tip in place as the air leaks out of your mouth, due to the light resistance you’re creating by maintaining your tongue’s position. Make sure you’re also using your voice (vibrating your vocal cords) as well. If you’ve ever imitated a retro-telephone ring, you may have this motion down already. (RRRRRRRing!!!)
“English R”:
English speakers have one concept or phoneme of R [ɹ]. To create this sound, use a curled or bunched tongue R (a voiced, alveolar approximant) where the tongue tip does not touch the top of the mouth. This sound doesn’t occur in Spanish (but it does in many dialects of Mandarin, for example). Think of the ending sound in the annoyed growling utterance, “Grrrrr!”
We use this pronunciation when we encounter spellings of “r,” “rr,” “wr,” or “rh.” There are few exceptions to this rule, including possible pronunciations of February (as Febyuary) or French loanwords, such as repertoire (as re-puh-twar or even re-puh-twah).
There are a few ways to execute this R. Most American English speakers use the “bunched” R where the tongue points towards the alveolar ridge and sort of squishes a little bit towards the back of the mouth. Some folks call it “molar R,” because they feel the side of the back of the tongue gently bracing the top molars (although the tongue tip still doesn’t touch any part of the mouth). You can also create a “retroflex” approximant R by curling the tongue towards a bit behind the alveolar ridge. Despite the differences in execution, the sound lands as an R.
For Spanish speakers, I’d recommend feeling where your tongue would go to start the “r” in the word “rosa”—but lower your tongue tip so it’s no longer touching the top of your mouth – and curl it back a bit. (Note that you may feel the back of your tongue “bunching” a bit towards the back of the mouth or the sides of your tongue in the back lightly touching your top back molars.) Once you have this position, let your air and voice flow! The good news is, you can pronounce all “r”s this way—regardless of whether there’s one or two of them together and regardless of its position in a word.
Whether you’re an English speaker learning Spanish or a Spanish speaker working on your English pronunciation — I’d love to help. We can work to develop an authentic-sounding pronunciation in Spanish or English to raise your level of skill and confidence. CONTACT ME
*In some dialects of Spanish, particularly in parts of the Caribbean or parts of Andalusia, speakers may not pronounce the tapped or trilled R in the way we are about to explore. For example, in Puerto Rican Spanish, a coda R (ending a syllable) may become an L sound (e.g. “amor” pronounced more like “amol,” and other dialects may soften or even delete this R. In some Dominican Republic dialects, you may add an H-style sound (e.g. “arroz” might sound more like “ahrroz”).
**In some dialects of English, particularly Scottish English and some Irish English varieties, speakers use a tapped [ɾ] or even a trilled [r] for their R sounds. For example, in Scottish English, a speaker might say “red” with a tap or trill at the beginning. You may also hear these types of R sounds in parts of Northern England or in older or more formal registers. Think of a movie where someone claims they are heir to the “throne.” And there’s another distinction of rhotic (R-full) dialects and non-rhotic (R-less) dialects—so where the Standard American English generally models the pronunciation off of Rs in the spelling, non-rhotic dialects keep the Rs in the onset or beginning of a syllable and drop some or all Rs in the coda or end of a syllable. Therefore, in a rhotic dialect, you’d pronounce “red rubber ball” with the Rs as written, but in a non-rhotic dialect, you’d expect to hear something like sounds more like “red rubbuh ball.”
