In this article, we are going to learn how to pronounce R vs RR. If you’re learning Spanish, you’ve probably come across these letters and wondered when R is pronounced soft or hard. R and RR may look similar, but they’re pronounced differently and can change the meaning of a word.

The single –r– may sound softer or harder, depending on where it falls in a word. The double –rr– is always hard.

R vs RR

Pronouncing words with r vs rr correctly can be a challenge for many Spanish learners, especially for those whose mother tongue doesn’t have these sounds. Here are some tips:

  • To pronounce the r soft sound, place the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth and make a quick tap or flap against the roof of your mouth.
  • To pronounce the r hard sound, you should vibrate your tongue rapidly against the roof of your mouth. You can practice this by saying the English word butter quickly, which has a similar sound.

Now let’s go through different examples these two sounds. You can listen and repeat the words.

R with soft sound

The single –r– has a soft sound in the following three cases.

1. Between two vowels

WordPronunciation
la harina (flour)
el bombero (firefighter)
la jirafa (giraffe)
la hora (hour)
Uruguay (Uruguay)

2. At the end of a word

WordPronunciation
pagar (to pay)
la mujer (woman)
sentir (to feel)
el color (color)
el sur (south)

3. After the consonants –b-, –c-, –d-, –f-, –g-, –p– and –t–

WordPronunciation
la fiebre (fever)
el cruce (crossing)
la piedra (stone)
la frente (forehead)
el peligro (danger)
el precio (price)
el centro (center)

Exceptions: When an –r– appears after the prefix sub-, it has a hard sound. For example, listen to how the Spanish verb subrayar (to underline) is pronounced:

R with hard sound

The single –r– has a hard sound in the following two cases.

1. At the beginning of a word

WordPronunciation
la radio (radio)
el robot (robot)
rico (rich)
el reloj (clock, watch)
la rueda (wheel)

2. After the consonants –l-, –n– and –s–

WordPronunciation
alrededor de (around)
la sonrisa (smile)
Israel (Israel)

RR (always hard sound)

The double –rr– always has a hard sound and always comes between two vowels.

WordPronunciation
la Tierra (Earth)
la torre (tower)
aburrido (boring)
el gorro (hat)
la arruga (wrinkle)

Conclusion

The difference in sound and spelling is important because it can change the meaning of a word. For example, pera (with a single R) means pear, while perra (with RR) means female dog.

RRR
pero (but)
el perro (dog)
caro (expensive)
el carro (car in Mexican Spanish)
el coral (coral)
el corral (farmyard)
cero (zero)
el cerro (hill)

Pronouncing R vs RR correctly takes time and effort, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right at first. Just practice and listen to native Spanish speakers to pay attention to how they pronounce. Here are some sentences containing some of the words we have seen in this article.

Quiero hablar con el responsable del bar.

I want to speak with the person responsible for the bar.

La familia de Roberto siempre lleva ropa cara.

Roberto’s family always wears expensive clothes.

Exercises

Here are some exercises to practice the spelling and pronunciation of R vs RR. In our blog, you can also do exercises with words containing CH, H, J, K, Ñ, Q, W, X, Y or Z.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Categorized in:

Vocabulary