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Video 002 :: translation :: grammar explications :: vocabulary
Football = football (soccer) Ecco, ecco = there, there Vediamo Michela = We see Michela Che corre e tira = who runs and kicks Corre veloce, più veloce = She runs faster and faster La palla è sua = The ball is hers Avanti = Forward destra, sinistra = right, left ancora, corre, corre, correeeeeee = still, she runs, runs, ruuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssss tira e gol = and gets a goal signori! gol ! = My! Goal!
2.16.1
Exercises and explanations concerning the rolling 'r'
1 explanation
As we already said the Italian r unlike the English r is produced at the same place, where the d is produced. The tip of the tongue is pressed against the upper incisors. But when we produce a d, the tongue is pressed strongly against the incisors and the air is dammed behind the tongue and released when producing the d.
But if the tip of the tongue is already at the right place it is easier to produce a rolling r. Therefore we start with a word, where the tongue is already at the right place.
Exercise
don't pronounce it like that :
drink, drink, drink
but like that :
drink, drink, drink
At the beginning, when pronouncing the d or the t you press your tongue strongly against the upper incisors (obviously that's nothing you have to practise, that's something you are already doing all the time). Now you have to try to loosen up your tongue, not too much, but enough to allow it to flutter.
2 Plan B
If that doesn't help we use Plan B. We put the tip of the tongue on the upper incisors and we open the mouth. Besides that we do absolutely nothing. Then we concentrate on having just enough tension on our tongue to avoid that it falls down. Then we breathe out. At the beginning the tongue will not flutter, it is more probable that the pressure of the stream of air will pull it down, and when we stop breathing, it will go up again. That's not the way we imagined it, but is a good beginning. We repeat the exercise, putting a bit more pressure on our tongue. If we repeat that several times, we are going to find the right pressure, the tongue will flutter.
If the tongue flutters, we return to plan a.
Exercise
drrrrrrink, drrrrrink, drrrrrink
drrrrragon, drrragon, drrrragon
If we succeed doing that, we continue with Italian words. At the beginning we start with simple ones. That means with words where before the r is a t or a d and the tongue is therefore already in the right position.
Examples
treno = train
tre = three
trenta = thirty
strano = strange
dottrina = doctrine
If you succeed in doing that, you can continue with more difficult words, where the r is to be produced in a more difficult situation, in other words, when not preceded by d or t.
Examples
prezzo = price
proposta = proposal
monarca = monarch
grande = big
fare = to do
essere = to be
Those, who speak Spanish are going to ask themselves if the difference between r and rr is the same in Italian as in Spanish and indeed it is. In the case of a single r the tongue flutters only once and in the case of the double rr it flutters several times.
