Trabalenguas: Let’s Practice Some Spanish Tongue Twisters!
Practice some ‘trabalenguas’ in this article about Spanish tongue twisters. Give it a try and see how you fare!
On this page
Before you delve into tongue twisters, why don’t you check your Spanish level first?What is a tongue twister?How can tongue twisters help your Spanish?Great job getting through those!In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of the most fun tongue twisters in the Spanish language. The word for ‘tongue twister’ in Spanish is ‘trabalenguas,’ which comes from the verb ‘trabar’ (‘to get tangled up’) and the noun ‘lengua’ (‘tongue’)!
In this article, we’ve given you tongue twisters that you can use to practice particular sounds.
Before you delve into tongue twisters, why don’t you check your Spanish level first?
What is a tongue twister?
Tongue twisters are phrases that are supposed to be really tricky to pronounce. They often use one or two sounds repeatedly throughout the phrase. For example, ‘she sells seashells by the seashore.’
How can tongue twisters help your Spanish?
When learning a language, you’re often confronted by sounds that don’t exist in your native language, for example the rolled ‘r’ in Spanish, which is absent from many English accents. Using tongue twisters is a great way to get your tongue around those sounds, and learn some new vocab in the process!
As you practice, think of your mouth as forming muscle memory. You may well have to bend your mouth and tongue into shapes that you didn’t think were possible, but just because you weren’t born in a Spanish-speaking country doesn’t mean you can’t make Spanish sounds.
Imagine if a Spanish couple gets pregnant and moves to Canada. When the baby starts to talk, it doesn’t flat out say, “sorry, I don’t speak Spanish, eh.” As long as Spanish is spoken in the home, the kid picks up the Spanish language and Spanish sounds from the parents.
Okay, so you’re not a Spanish baby in Canada, but that doesn’t take away your ability to listen and mimic. Start by pronouncing each sound and syllable as slowly and clearly as you can, and then start reciting whole tongue twisters. You’re aiming for speed, clarity, and fluidity!
Spanish Tongue Twister: A Sound
- Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántas planchas plancha Pancha?Pancha irons with four irons. With how many irons does Pancha iron?
Spanish Tongue Twister: E Sound
- Esteban es escalador. Escala y escala. Esteban, el escalador: de tanto escalar, en una cima quedó.Esteban is a mountaineer. He climbs and he climbs. Esteban, the mountaineer: from so much climbing, he ended up on a peak.
Spanish Tongue Twister: I Sound
- Pablito clavó un clavito en la calva de un calvito. En la calva de un calvito, un clavito clavó Pablito.Pablito hammered a little nail into the bald patch of a little bald man. Into the bald patch of a little bald man, Pablito hammered a little nail.
Spanish Tongue Twister: O Sound
- Un dragón tragón tragó carbón y el carbón que tragó el dragón tragón le hizo salir barrigón.A greedy dragon swallowed coal and the coal that the greedy dragon swallowed gave him a pot belly.
Spanish Tongue Twisters: U Sound
- Una bruja tiene una brújula en una burbuja. Y con la aguja embrujada te embruja.A witch has a compass in a bubble. And with the enchanted needle she puts a spell on you.
Spanish Tongue Twisters: B/V Sounds
Both ‘b’ and ‘v’ are pronounced the same as each other.
Hard sound: They sound almost like an English ‘b’ when:
- At the start of an utterance.
- After ‘m’ or ‘n.’
Softer sound: In other positions, the lips usually approach each other without fully closing. Do not touch the upper teeth to the lower lip as you would for an English “v.”
If you say the whole tongue twister smoothly, the initial B in Beatriz has a full lip closure, while the other b and v sounds are normally softer. A pause can change this pattern.
- Beatriz tuvo un tubo, y el tubo que tuvo se le rompió. Para recuperar el tubo que tuvo, tuvo que comprar un tubo, igual al tubo que tuvo.Beatriz had a tube, and the tube that she had: it broke. To replace the tube she had, she had to buy one just like it.
Spanish Tongue Twisters: Ca/Co/Cu/Qu (‘k’ sound)
Spanish Tongue Twisters: Ce/Ci/Z/S (‘th’ or ‘s’ sound)
How these letters are pronounced will depend on where you come from:
- In most parts of Spain, ‘s’ is pronounced like the ‘s’ in ‘see,’ but the consonants in ‘ce’ and ‘ci,’ and ‘z’ are usually pronounced like the ‘th’ in ‘birth.’
- In Latin American Spanish, the Canary Islands, and many parts of Andalusia, these spellings represent the same /s/ sound. This pattern is called seseo.
- Un zapatero zambo zapateaba zapateados de zapata, zapateados de zapata zapateaba un zapatero zambo.A knock-kneed shoemaker tap-danced tap dances, tap dances did tap-dance a knock-kneed shoemaker.
Spanish Tongue Twister: Ch Sound
- Me han dicho que has dicho un dicho, un dicho que he dicho yo. Ese dicho que te han dicho que yo he dicho, no lo he dicho; y si yo lo hubiera dicho, estaría muy bien dicho por haberlo dicho yo.They said to me that you’ve said a saying, a saying that I said. That saying that they said to you that I said, I didn’t say it; and if I had said it, it would be very well said for having been said by me.
Spanish Tongue Twisters: Ge/Gi/J (throaty ‘h’ sound)
Before e or i, g has the same sound as j. Its strength varies by accent, from a sound made at the back of the mouth to a softer sound like English “h.” Before a, o, or u, g represents a different sound: a full stop as in English “go” after a pause or n, and usually a softer sound between vowels.
Spanish Tongue Twister: M Sound
- Mi mamá me mima mucho.My mom spoils me a lot.
Spanish Tongue Twister: Ñ (‘ny’ sound)
- Ñoño Yáñez come ñame en las mañanas con el niño.Boring Yáñez eats yam in the mornings with the boy.
Spanish Tongue Twister: P Sound
- Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico, con un pico pica papas Pepe Pecas.Pepe Freckles chops taters with a pick, with a pick Pepe Freckles chops taters.
Spanish Tongue Twisters: R/Rr Sound
Can you roll your ‘r’s? You may not know this, but there are two types of ‘r’ sound in Spanish. Check out their posh names:
‘Voiced alveolar trill’: this is what we usually think of as that rolled ‘r.’ Use it for:
- Words beginning with ‘r,’ e.g. ‘realmente.’
- When there’s a double ‘r’ (‘rr’), e.g. ‘hierro.’
- When there’s an ‘r’ directly after ‘l,’ ‘n,’ or ‘s,’ e.g. ‘alrededor,’ ‘honrado,’ ‘desregular.’
‘Voiced alveolar tap’: this isn’t a full-on roll, more of a quick tap of the tongue. It sounds a bit like the ‘dd’ sound when you say ‘ladder’ in most US accents. Use it for:
- A single r between vowels, as in pero, or in clusters such as tr and pr. At the end of a syllable or word, the realization can vary with accent and emphasis.
Spanish Tongue Twister: Y/Ll
As we mentioned earlier, different letters are pronounced in different ways depending on where a speaker is from. But it’s also influenced by the age of a speaker, because of the way languages change over time!
Many speakers pronounce consonantal y and ll alike; this is called yeísmo. Other speakers distinguish them. You cannot reliably predict that distinction from age alone, and both patterns are accepted.
- Hoy ya es ayer y ayer ya es hoy. Ya llegó el día, y hoy es hoy.Today is already yesterday and yesterday is already today. The day has already arrived, and today is today.
Top tip: when ‘y’ stands alone meaning ‘and,’ it’s pronounced like ‘ee.’
Great job getting through those!
Trabalenguas are a fantastic learning tool, so have fun with them!
