Alveolar Bootcamp
The most difficult movement to master in Spanish is the Alveolar Tap (aka Spanish R sound). This sound does indeed exist in some dialects of English, but with limited usage.
As a Spanish learner, you may have a STRONG tendency as an English speaker to replace the Spanish 'R' /&/ with the English /ɹ/ sound. Even more important, they are also the MOST common speech sounds in the language.
Doing this wrong is perhaps the biggest giveaway of whether you have a bad accent. Acoustically, the English /ɹ/ sound is completely different from the Spanish R /&/. Yet this is still the most common pronunciation error that English speakers make. This is why the alveolar consonants have their own bootcamp.
In this unit, you will train hearing and mimicking all of the possible Spanish R combinations and perform special drills to build the motor skills needed to articulate these sounds accurately and effortlessly.
The sections that follow examine the alveolar tap in each of its possible combinations in Spanish, and provides you with drills to strengthen the muscle coordination needed to create these combinations. Think of these alveolar tap drills as "pronunciation push-ups." They are a little different from the song-training, but they target the weakest regions of your Spanish speech organ.
If this is your first time here, you can click the button below to get started with the first part or use the menu below to select which section you want. I have also placed two videos from the bonus content section which specifically relate to alveolar sounds.
As a Spanish learner, you may have a STRONG tendency as an English speaker to replace the Spanish 'R' /&/ with the English /ɹ/ sound. Even more important, they are also the MOST common speech sounds in the language.
Doing this wrong is perhaps the biggest giveaway of whether you have a bad accent. Acoustically, the English /ɹ/ sound is completely different from the Spanish R /&/. Yet this is still the most common pronunciation error that English speakers make. This is why the alveolar consonants have their own bootcamp.
In this unit, you will train hearing and mimicking all of the possible Spanish R combinations and perform special drills to build the motor skills needed to articulate these sounds accurately and effortlessly.
The sections that follow examine the alveolar tap in each of its possible combinations in Spanish, and provides you with drills to strengthen the muscle coordination needed to create these combinations. Think of these alveolar tap drills as "pronunciation push-ups." They are a little different from the song-training, but they target the weakest regions of your Spanish speech organ.
If this is your first time here, you can click the button below to get started with the first part or use the menu below to select which section you want. I have also placed two videos from the bonus content section which specifically relate to alveolar sounds.
1. Tap in Isolation: (& + vowels)
2. Easy Combos: (f&, m, b&, p&, g&, k&)
3. Tricky Combos: (&s, &l, &n)
4. Difficult Combos: (d&, t&, +&)
Alveolar Tap 1 |
Alveolar Tap 2 |
|
|
|
