LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el perro" in Spanish?
el PEH-rroh — the double r is a full rolled trill, which is what makes it a dog.
Two syllables — PE-rro — with the stress on the first, as the rule for this ending requires. The rr counts as one consonant for syllable division, so the break falls before it. This word is half of the language's most famous minimal pair: "perro" with a trill is a dog, "pero" with a tap is but.
Listen: el perro
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
El perro ladra mucho.
The dog barks a lot.
Listen: El perro ladra mucho.
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"El perro ladra mucho" pairs the trill in "perro" with a single tap inside "ladra", giving you both r sounds in adjacent words. "Ladra" is stressed LA-dra with a soft d running into the tap. Listening for the length difference between the two r's is the whole exercise here.
Where English speakers slip
The trill defeats most beginners, and an English r substitutes so poorly that "perro" and "pero" become indistinguishable. If you cannot roll yet, a doubled tap is a far better stopgap, because the English version pulls the tongue backward and stops the vibration before it can start. The p also wants an English puff, and the final o wants reducing.