How to Learn the RR Sound and Spanish Tongue Twisters - Tuesday Tarea by A Panama Mama

Last Tuesday, you heard a little about my learning Spanish background and saw the awesome Me gusta video. That video brings back so many memories!

One of the first things I remember learning in Spanish was how to roll my rr’s. This is something that takes practice for English speakers, but the more you practice, the better you should get. The phrase I used to practice was, “Ruffles have ridges.” Do you remember that commercial?

Any time you see a rr, an r at the end or start of a word, you should trill the r sound two or three times. If you see an r elsewhere in a word, it just gets trilled once. Once you have mastered the r sound, you can practice saying this:

Erre con erre cigarro,
erre con erre barril,
rapido corren los carros,
detras del ferrocarril.

Speaking of ferrocarril (railroad), fun Panama fact: The oldest continually operating railroad is in Panama. It travels from Panama City to Colon and back.

And for one last trabalengua (tongue twister), I will leave you with my favorite. I was told this was the name of a volcano in Mexico, but just googled that and it appears to not be correct. Instead, it is just a fun word to see if you can pronounce that is very similar to the name of a Mexican volcano. This was actually a word I received a grade in class for learning to say. It is:

Parangaricutirimicuaro

Our local volcano which a much easier name, Baru.
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Tuesday Tarea will be brought to you here every Tuesday by A Panama Mama.
Check back each week for videos, lessons, poems and much more that will encourage you to explore Spanish!
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Gracias por visitarme. Hasta luego.