Learn some Spanish Tongue Twisters!
Learning some Spanish tongue twisters, or “trabalenguas”, is both educational and fun. Tongue twisters may not make much sense when translated, but they’re brilliant for practising your pronunciation of different letters. And the better you get at reeling off a tongue twister, the better you get at speaking conversational Spanish (which is obviously much more useful). So give your lips a workout with some trabalenguas today!
First, take some deep breaths, stretch your mouth and hum for a bit to get your mouth ready for some exercises. Then we’ll start with some easy tongue twisters.
Tres tristes tigres comían trigo en un trigal.
Three sad tigers ate wheat in a wheat field.
Pablito clavó un clavito, ¿qué clavito clavó Pablito?
Little Pablo hammered in a little nail, what little nail did Pablito hammer in?
Pepe Peña pela papa, pica piña, pita un pito, pica piña, pela papa, Pepe Peña.
Pepe Peña peels potatoes, cuts pineapple, blows a whistle, cuts pineapple, peels potatoes, Pepe Peña.
Easy enough? Here are some harder ones.
El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo porque Don Ramón Ramirez se lo ha cortado.
San Roque’s dog doesn’t have a tail because Don Ramón Ramirez cut it off.
Si la sierva que te sirve, no te sirve como sierva, ¿de qué sirve que te sirvas de una sierva que no sirve?
If the servant that serves you, serves you not as a servant, of what use is the service of a servant that doesn’t serve?
And for the grand finale:
Pedro Pérez Pereira, pobre pintor Portugués, pinta preciosos paisajes por poco precio para poder pasar por París.
Pedro Pérez Pereira, poor Portuguese painter, paints precious landscapes for little price to pay for passage to Paris.
Have fun with these — and remember, you’re learning lots of vocabulary and doing wonders for your pronunciation, not just having fun!
Please don’t hesitate to consider our school group tours to Spain. Lessons in our school trips can be catered exactly to your group’s needs. Customise your own tour here.
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