Why does Mauricio not roll the R in restaurante?

Dejé mi abrigo en el restaurante. In Lesson 8.3 Mauricio does not roll the R. Why not?

I suspect it is just his accent as he barely rolls it in this example from 8.3 (and I don't hear the el at all). Terminé el reporte esta mañana.

Is the R in the begining of a word a softer roll than RR in the middle of a word? Here is an example of Mauricio with a hard roll. Dejé las llaves en el carro.

Thanks!

¡Hola Scott_C y Al22!

Al22 is right in noting that native speakers from different regions and different backgrounds will have different pronunciations, and this can affect how much of a roll they put on their Rs. Other factors, such as the speed with which people are speaking and the sound that comes right before the R, can also have an impact: it's easier to get a nice R roll in when you're speaking more slowly and taking more time to enunciate, and it's also easier when the R comes after a vowel sound (like in carro). All of these elements are likely to play some part.

Ultimately, though, the R at the beginning of a word isn't really a softer roll - it's just that the circumstances of the sentence may make rolling it clearly a bit more difficult. 

As for the el in Terminé el reporte esta mañana, it is there, but it's being overshadowed by the strong é in terminé. You may be able to hear it better if you select a slower playback speed through the Settings options in the upper right-hand corner - but it may also be that your ears just aren't quite used to how these sounds blend together yet. With more time and more Spanish exposure, your ears will become better at picking them apart!

I hope that this helps! Let me know if anything is still unclear!

Saludos,

Liss

AI22 - amazing post, thanks so much. I have Scotish relatives who are barely understandable when sober, but holy cow - put a few drinks in them and forget about it. I do hear you on the regionality - I watch Pablo Escobar El Patrón Del Mar to try and catch phrases, sometims sentences and occasionally have an idea of what is going on and the guy who plays Pablo rolls his Rs so hard. At first I thought it was a joke but when I read online about the show it said it is a highly rated Spanish language show (out of Columbia if I remember correctly).

Liss - as always, thanks so much. I figured the “el” was in there but on normal speed I literally can't here it. I never thought of the slow speed, so I will try that!

Ok, slower definiely worked. Mauricio is say terminé and el together. Hearing it slowly, you can hear the “l” but even knowing it is there, I still don't hear it full speed. More listening practice in my future!  Thanks again.