Rr rr — erra doble
«erra doble» is a digraph of Valencian, the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script, read as “a long trilled r”. A long trill, held noticeably longer than the tapped r. For example, in the word “terra” — earth. The Valencian alphabet has 35 letters in total. cara, a face, with a short r and carro, a cart, with a trill differ only in that length. It appears, for example, in the word “el carrer” — street.
In short
| Character | Rr rr |
| Name | erra doble |
| Sound | a long trilled r |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 23rd of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are r and s, appears in 120 words of this site.
How it sounds
A long trill, held noticeably longer than the tapped r
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- terraearth
The character in the “letters that deceive” group
This is where Valencian parts ways with Spanish: j is a j as in "jam", s between vowels voices to z, and h is silent — yet hui and huit are not written without it.
- H hsilent, never pronouncedhac
- J ja voiced j, between "jam" and the s of "vision"jota
- G gg as in "go"; j before e and ige
- V va soft b, lips never presseduve baixa
- B bb as in "best"; p at the end of a wordbe alta
- C ck as in "kite"; s before e and ice
- Q qk, always with a silent ucu
- S ss as in "sun"; z between vowelsesse
- Ss sss as in "sun", always voicelessessa doble
- R ra tapped r — and final -r is pronouncederre
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «erra doble» it is “a long trilled r”, as in the word “terra”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 35 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Valencian character rr read?
As “a long trilled r” — it is a digraph of the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script. A long trill, held noticeably longer than the tapped r. For example, in the word “terra” — earth.
What is the letter rr called?
Erra doble. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Valencian script: it is called “erra doble” and reads as “a long trilled r”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can rr be confused with?
cara, a face, with a short r and carro, a cart, with a trill differ only in that length. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.