Pronunciation 4 - Trilled R

The trilled r is undoubtedly the Italian sound that is most foreign to the majority of English speakers. It is nothing like the r in most English accents. It is produced by vibrating the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, just behind the teeth. Here are some Italian words in which this sound stands out.

	Italian	English
	burro	butter
	ferro	iron
	guerra	war
	sorriso	smile

In normal speech, however, most instances of this sound consist of just a “single” vibration, or rather a single tap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. This reduced sound is actually heard in some varieties of English as a substitute for a “t” or “d” that’s separated by two vowels, such as in the following English words.

	English		Similar Italian Sound	Meaning
	better		bere	to drink
	cheddar		cera	wax
	yeti		ieri	yesterday
	lotto		loro	them
	powder		paura	fear

This single tap is always sufficient for pronouncing a single r (and it is usually preferred), however the full trill is usually required to pronounce a double r. Here are some more examples, showing the r in different positions relative to other letters. This list includes some of the most difficult rs to pronounce in Italian. If you can consistently pronounce all of these words correctly then you have mastered the Italian r.

	Italian	English
	rana	frog
	risata	laugh
	aperto	open
	barca	boat
	circa	approximately
	birra	beer
	sdraio	deckchair
	nostro	our
	padre	father
	caro	dear
	carro	cart
	sera	evening
	serra	greenhouse
	protrarre	to prolong
	riprodurre	to reproduce
	ripercorrere	to go over again

Note that in some cases (such as with the words caro, carro, sera and serra in the previous list) the difference between a quick tap and a long trill can change the meaning of a word. This is a special case of the distinction between single and double consonants, which we covered in Lesson 3.

Exercise

The following exercise contains all the example Italian words from this lesson. You should focus on the pronunciation of the rs in each word and not be too concerned about the pronunciation of any sounds that we haven’t covered yet.

Next Lesson: Pronunciation 5 - Soft and Hard C and G