The Rolling R sound

helpmeplease

How do you make the R sound in German? I cannot seem to do it right. My frustration is made worse by the fact that my girlfriend is from Berlin! I can not speak like her (to be expected I suppose:D).
However, I would like to be able to make the rolling R sound. Any tips would be appreciated

helpmeplease

helpmeplease wrote: »

How do you make the R sound in German? I cannot seem to do it right. My frustration is made worse by the fact that my girlfriend is from Berlin! I can not speak like her (to be expected I suppose:D).
However, I would like to be able to make the rolling R sound. Any tips would be appreciated

I should add that I do not speak German, I am just picking up words and phrases all the time.
I plan on learning it next year before I move to Germany

An Citeog

helpmeplease wrote: »

How do you make the R sound in German? I cannot seem to do it right. My frustration is made worse by the fact that my girlfriend is from Berlin! I can not speak like her (to be expected I suppose:D).
However, I would like to be able to make the rolling R sound. Any tips would be appreciated

Can't help you, I'm afraid. It's something I've always had a slight difficulty with but tbh, it's not really a big deal. Tbh, there's no need to get frustrated with it, particularly if you don't speak much German. It's a fairly throaty sound though, compared to the 'r' in Spanish and the way it rolls of your tongue.

helpmeplease

My GF said it is one thing that English speakers always have difficulty with. Kind of like the way they have difficulty with our 'th' sound.
I still would like to be able to do it in some shape or form, even if it is not perfect!

peasant

There are two types of rolling r's

The most common one is made in the back of the throat, the other one with the tip of the tongue.

The back of the throat one is like violently coughing up phlegm , only a lot less violent.

To practice, start off by making that nasty old man sound (but please stop short of hawking it up ) and then just gradually reduce the force until the sound gets less violent and moves up the throat to near the end of your tongue and starts sounding like an "R".

The other one is a lot easier ..it's just like saying "brrr" to a horse (with the tip of your tongue flapping just behind your teeth under the pressure of the exhaled air.
That kind of "R" is only used in Bavaria though (and in Spanish )

helpmeplease

Thanks. I can do the second R sound pretty well. I'm quite good at speaking Gaeilge so that R sound comes much more naturally. I'm surprised you forgot to mention Gaeilge as one of the only European languages to have that R sound (the front of the tongue one!) :-)

Thanks a million for the old man tip. I'll give it a shot! Danke schon. (How the hell can I put an umlaut over the letters.....?)

peasant

helpmeplease wrote: »

I'm surprised you forgot to mention Gaeilge as one of the only European languages to have that R sound (the front of the tongue one!)

Gaelge wouldn't exactly be my first language (nor 2nd or 3rd )

(is mise Gearmanach)

helpmeplease

Oops sorry for the assumption!
Thank you for your help.

xia

helpmeplease wrote: »

Danke schon. (How the hell can I put an umlaut over the letters.....?)

It's possible using ALT + numeric pad (unfortunatley only using that, so not possible on my laptop - used copy + paste instead;))

132 ä
142 Ä
133 ö
153 Ö
129 ü
154 Ü

225 ß

An Citeog

helpmeplease wrote: »

Danke schon. (How the hell can I put an umlaut over the letters.....?)

xia wrote: »

It's possible using ALT + numeric pad (unfortunatley only using that, so not possible on my laptop - used copy + paste instead;))

132 ä
142 Ä
133 ö
153 Ö
129 ü
154 Ü

225 ß

You can also do it by changing your keyboard into German. Go to Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region > Change keyboards or other input methods. Then just add whatever language you feel like.

On a typical German keyboard,

ä is '
ö is ;
ü is [
ß is -

It's alright copying and pasting when you're just writing a sentence or two but if you're writing anything longer, changing the keyboard is so much easier. You can then just switch back, using the little symbol in the bottom left-hand side of your screen that should say EN at the moment.

xia

Well, I tend to be even more lazy. Usually I just type ae, ue, oe....
(only used copy + paste here so that is't easier to read)

mental07

An Citeog wrote: »

You can also do it by changing your keyboard into German. Go to Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region > Change keyboards or other input methods. Then just add whatever language you feel like.

On a typical German keyboard,

ä is '
ö is ;
ü is [
ß is -

It's alright copying and pasting when you're just writing a sentence or two but if you're writing anything longer, changing the keyboard is so much easier. You can then just switch back, using the little symbol in the bottom left-hand side of your screen that should say EN at the moment.

My PC only gives me options for UK/US/Irish English. Know any way around this...?

An Citeog

mental07 wrote: »

My PC only gives me options for UK/US/Irish English. Know any way around this...?

It should give you the option to "add input language".

Go in via your control panel or click the EN button > show the language bar > options (little half triangle) > settings > add...