Spanish and English “R” Wonderfully Different – Unpacking a Key Pronunciation Contrast (Accent Tips & Strategies for Spanish and English Learners)

National Hispanic Heritage month (Sept 15-Oct 15) celebrates contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to US culture. I found an NPR article from last year discussing the choice of Hispanic vs. Latinx, as I was a bit surprised by the less modern nomenclature. If anyone has feedback on the topic from a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standpoint, or insights from a personal perspective, please do share.

Regardless of the name, as a linguist, I want to spend a few paragraphs highlighting some key differences between Spanish and English. While plenty of textbooks focus on grammar and vocabulary, I’ll take a few moments to highlight one major pronunciation difference between the two languages. Native English-speaking clients often ask me for tips on speaking Spanish without sounding “like a gringo,” and Spanish-speaking clients often ask me for techniques that will make them sound more like a “Standard American English” speaker.?

The highlight of my college career was a two-semester study abroad at la Universidad de Salamanca in Spain – and, 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. The two experiences back-to-back were a wonderful counterpoint—as I had been learning key articulatory differences between English and Spanish as a Spanish learner, and then I utilized this intel in reverse to help native Spanish speakers learn English. Due to my studies in phonetics and phonology, I was able to capture some key patterns based on deltas in the languages’ phonetic inventories--which is gobbledy-gook for saying I have a secret decoder ring; and I’m going to share it.

The items below should facilitate understanding in both directions, for one of the key sounds that is very different in Spanish versus English, the letter “r.”

“r” in Spanish (in Standard dialects of Latin/South American, Mexican, and Castilian Spanish)

• First, Spanish uses a “tap” or “flap” sound, where the tongue-tip touches the hard palate (the alveolar ridge to be exact). This occurs where 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 has this sound but not for an “r” spelling. It occurs in certain words with t or d like “butter” or “buddy.” A 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.”
• Next, Spanish also uses a “trill” sound, where the tongue tip quickly vibrates by repeatedly touching the hard palate (the alveolar ridge again). This occurs where you see “rr” in the spelling OR when a word begins with “r.” (You’ll also hear the trill where “r” occurs after l, n, or s, but this is not a very common sound combination in Spanish.) 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. For English speakers, to make the trill, place the tongue where the “tt” in better occurs, then try blowing a “gust” of air at the tongue, which should vibrate it in place—and make sure you’re using your voice (vibrating your vocal cords) as well. If you’ve ever imitated a retro-telephone ring, you may have this motion down.

“r” in English (in Standard American English, since there’s a lot of variation):

• English uses a curled/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. Think of the ending sound in the annoyed growling utterance, “Grrrrr!” 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. (You may also feel the back of your tongue “bunching” a bit towards 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.

Some additional tips as a language-learning technology geek—if you’re starting out in your English learning (as a native Spanish speaker) or Spanish learning (as a native English speaker), try using Mango Languages as a self-paced learning tool. I’m singling this app out, because the software has a heavy focus on speaking—and it includes a tool for comparing your recordings to a native speaker’s voice. You also apply your learning to practical conversations and hear a variety of native speakers in both slowly articulated and connected, conversational pace. They don’t use a simulated robot voice or digitally change the speed of the recording. In fact, I liked this product so much, I joined forces with them last January.?

If you’re an advanced speaker of English and want to improve your pronunciation skills or work on your “Standard American English” accent, check out BoldVoice—which is a tool in the style of ELSA—but this pronunciation app not only gives you immediate feedback from speech AI, but also features videos from coaches to give you precise techniques and pronunciation strategies from an articulation perspective. The strategies take into account the “interference” from a speaker’s native language that causes a resulting “accent” in the target language. Variety in language and accent is beautiful, but language learners often strive to be clearly understood, so the above tools help build competence, and better yet, confidence.? (And of course, it’s wonderful to work with a private tutor or speech coach if you have the time and resources.)

In the interest of crowdsourcing, feel free to add your tips as native speakers, teachers, and learners of English and Spanish in the comments. And please do share your experiences—successes, challenges, questions, etc.—resulting from your personal language journeys.

And if you like these tips and want more, please let me know, and I’ll add to this sound tips list—I take requests!

Here’s to celebrating and cherishing linguistic diversity!