11 Fun and Easy Spanish Tongue Twisters for Kids
Spanish tongue twisters are a tried and tested method that will improve your children’s vocabulary and pronunciation skills. A perfect mixture of poetry and games, Spanish tongue twisters are something you won’t want to skip when learning any language. Plus, if you teach these to your kids, they’ll be guaranteed to impress almost everyone with their mad pronunciation skills! To help you with that, I’ve compiled a list of beginner and kid-friendly Spanish tongue twisters everyone should know.
Benefits of Learning Spanish Tongue Twisters
Before we dive into our list, let’s talk about all the good things Spanish tongue twisters can do for our brains!
Train your short and long term memory: Repetition is one of the most used forms of learning there is. It’s a very important skill to train and develop. And lucky for you, tongue twisters will make memory training feel as light as a Saturday morning cartoon! Practicing pronunciation makes our brains hold on to the info as we process it, and when we do it enough times, we learn it for good! This is important since memorization will play a big part in your child’s school life, for tests and quizzes alike.
Improve pronunciation: Spanish tongue twisters are great tools for pronunciation because of their higher-than-usual difficulty. This means mastering tongue twisters is great to practice patience and tolerance to frustration. Today we’re looking at beginner and kid-friendly level tongue twisters, but if you want to practice specific vowels and consonants pronunciation, I recommend you check out our list of Spanish tongue twisters to perfect your pronunciation.
Sharpen enunciation: Enunciation, the way we articulate words, is a pillar of proper public speaking. Spanish tongue twisters are a great way to practice this since you won’t be able to say the tongue twister correctly without enunciating it clearly. This skill is useful for many things such as public speaking and language learning.
Expand your vocabulary: Spanish tongue twisters have words that you might not encounter often in a conversation. By exposing your children to these words and helping them to understand what they mean, you’re doing them a huge favor that will serve them for life! According to a study by Marzano and Pickering (2005), students who increase their vocabulary through regular exposure to new words consistently improve their academic scores.
Impress and Entertain: We all know that kids learn best when they’re having fun. Tongue twisters are entertaining to say and funny to get wrong. If you’re teaching Spanish to your kid, Spanish tongue twisters are a quick and effective way to lift the mood when you need it.
Top 14 Spanish Tongue Twisters
This list has the best family-friendly tongue twisters you can practice with young children. You will recognize some of these as adaptations of famous English tongue twisters. Let us know if you find any in the comments! The translations will not always sound good or make sense, which makes understanding the tongue twister in Spanish much more rewarding.
1. Por la Calle Carretas
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Por la calle Carretas pasaba un perrito, pasó una carreta, le pisó el rabito. | On Wagon street walked a dog,A wagon passed by,And squished his little tail. |
2. Poco Coco Como
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Como poco coco como,poco coco compro | Since I eat few coconuts,Few coconuts I buy. |
3. Los Cojines de la Reina
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Los cojines de la reina,Los cajones del sultán.¡Qué cojines!¡Qué cajones!¿En qué cajonera van? | The queen’s pillows,The sultan’s chests,What pillows!What chests!In which drawer do they go? |
4. La Bruja Piruja
| Spanish | English Translation |
| La bruja PirujaPrepara un brebajeCon cera de abejas,Dos dientes de ajo,Cuatro lentejas,Y unas migajasDe lana de oveja. | The Witch PirujaPrepares a beverageWith beeswax,Two garlic cloves,Four lentils,And some crumbsFrom sheep’s wool. |
5. Matías Mete una Cuchara
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Matías mete una cuchara: no saca nada.Matías mete un palito: saca un poquito.Matías mete un bastón: saca un montón. | Matías dips the spoon: he gets nothing.Matías dips a stick: he gets a little bit.Matías dips the cane: he gets a lot. |
6. Lado, Ledo, Lido, Lodo, Ludo
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Lado, ledo, lido, lodo, ludoDecirlo al revés lo dudo.Ludo, lodo, lido, ledo, lado,¡Qué trabajo me ha costado! | Lado, ledo, lido, lodo, ludo,I doubt I can say it backwards.Ludo, lodo, lido, ledo, lado,That took me a lot of work! |
7. El Anillo del Llavero
| Spanish | English Translation |
| El anillo del llavero no tiene llaves.¿Quién se ha llevado las llaves Del anillo del llavero? | The keyring has no keys.Who took the keysFrom the keyring? |
8. Teresa Trajo Tizas
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Teresa trajo tizas hechas trizas. | Teresa brought chalk sticks broken into pieces. |
9. Cuando Digo Diego
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Cuando yo digo “Diego”Digo “digo.”Y cuando digo “digo”Digo “Diego.” | When I say “Diego,”I say “digo”.When I say “digo”I say “Diego.” |
10. Pepe Pecas
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico.Con un pico pica papas Pepe Pecas. | Pepe Pecas picks potatoes with a pick.With a pick Pepe Pecas picks potatoes. |
11. Pablito Clavó un Clavito
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Qué clavito clavó Pablito? | Pablito nailed a nail.Which nail did Pablito nail? |
12.María Chuchena
| Spanish | English Translation |
| María Chuchena su choza techaba,y un techador que por allá pasaba,le dijo:– Chuchena,¿tú techas tu choza,o techas la ajena? | María Chuchena was roofing her house,And a roofer that walked byAsked her:Do you roof your own house,Or someone else’s? |
13. Cien Sierras
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Si cien sierras sierran cien cipreses seiscientas sierras sierran seiscientos cipreses. | If one hundred saws saw one hundred cypress trees, six hundred saws saw six hundred cypress trees. |
14. Pocas Copas
| Spanish | English Translation |
| Compré pocas copas, pocas copas compré,como compré pocas copas, pocas copas pagué. | I bought a few cups, a few cups I bought,Since I bought a few cups, a few cups I paid. |
Practice Tips for Parents and Teachers
Now you’re prepped with a fantastic list of Spanish tongue twisters! All that’s left to do is practice and teach them to the kids. Let’s go over some tips to make the learning experience easy and fun.
- Start with easier tongue twisters. This is especially true with younger kids at ages 4-5. Start slowly by teaching a small part of the tongue twister, and then say the other part yourself. You can make this into a fun back and forth game with tongue twisters such as Lado, Ledi, Lido, Lodo, Ludo.
- Use visual aids such as pictures or drawings. This will help your child associate the words and sounds with images, allowing them to understand the meanings and strengthen recall.
- Celebrate each victory by cheering on your child when they make progress. Rewarding success is a great way to keep morale and motivation high. You can do this by keeping a scoreboard for every time they say the tongue twister correctly, with a nice treat or activity as a reward for when they reach a total of 10.
- Lead by example! Learn some Spanish tongue twisters of your own, and try to learn new ones along with your kid. Seeing adults make mistakes and go through the learning process conveys the message that making mistakes is ok, and a natural part of learning.
¡Qué Difícil Trabalenguas!
Now that you know plenty of trabalenguas, or Spanish tongue twisters, it’s time to go out and have fun with them! Which tongue twister is your favorite? Which one is the hardest? Leave a comment and let me know! If you want to see more Spanish tongue twisters, check our video Spanish tongue twisters that will blow your friends’ minds! ¡Hasta luego!
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