Mejorando su pronunciación con trabalenguas

MEJORANDO SU ESPAñOL CON JUEGOS DE PALABRAS ( TRABALENGUAS )

Improve Your Pronunciation Through Spanish Tongue Twisters

Like any stage of language learning, it’s best to start easy and work your way up to the more difficult stuff. That’s exactly how we’re going to progress through this list of tongue twisters:

The simplest tongue twister is probably

1. Tres tristes tigres – three sad tigers. Sound easy? Try repeating it over and over again. If you’re having trouble getting your mouth around it, try practicing “tre“, “tri” and “re” on their own before adding the other sounds to make the sentence.Once you can say that the tigers are sad without too bursting into tears yourself, make things more complex by setting the scene for your tigers further.Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal. Three sad tigers swallow wheat in a wheat field.or even:Tres tristes tigres trigaban trigo en un trigal.Three sad tigres swallowed wheat in a wheat field.

Un tigre, dos tigres, tres tigres trigaban en un trigal.¿Cúal tigre trigaba más?

One tiger, two tiger, three tigers swallowed in a wheat field.Which tigre swallowed more?They all swallowed thesame.Again, if you’re having trouble, practice the sounds on their own before saying the whole thing.

So, for the second version of “tres tristes tigres” you could practice saying “tre, tri, re, tra, tri, tri” until you can say the sounds quickly, and then try the whole sentence.

Once you’ve got the hang of that, try repeating the trabalengua faster and faster to see how quickly you can say it without tripping over the words.

Another simple tongue twister is:

2. Pablito clavó un clavito – little Pablo hit a little nail

This one helps practice the diminutive sound “ito” and is a nice little story, though it’s best not to dwell on why little Pablito is allowed near a hammer.

Pablito clavó un clavito ¿qué clavito clavó Pablito?Little Pablo hit a little nail, Which little nail did little Pablo hit?

Like “tres tristes tigres,” there are several variations on this tongue twister. One even adds a bald man into the mix. Yes, you read that correctly.Pablito clavó un clavito en la cabeza de un calvito.Little Pablo hit a little nail on the head of a little bald man.

En la cabeza de un calvito un clavo clavó Pablito.On the head of the little bald man, little Pablo hit a nail.

We never do find out what happened to the little bald man, or to Pablito, so there’s no guarantee that no one was harmed in the making of this tongue twister.

More Difficult Tongue Twisters This is designed to practice the “rr” sound, which is written here as “erre“. Make sure that you’re really pronouncing the “rr” and not just the “r” sound as you say this tongue twister. If you can’t tell the difference, try saying two words, one with “r” and one with “rr” one after the other.

To step it up a notch, twist your tongue around these: 4. Rápido corren los carros – the cars go quickly
Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril. Rápido corren los carros, cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril.R with rcigarette, r with r barrel.The carts go quickly, laden with sugar from the train. You could switch between “coro” (choir) and “corro” (I run) for example. Record yourself saying the words and then play it all back to see if you can tell the difference.

Another tongue twister concerns the important issue of buying coconuts:6. Compadre, cómprame un coco — buddy, buy me a coconut This fun rhyme practices the “co” sound in various forms, often adding the “m” to make “com“, which is pronounced exactly as it looks — with a long “o” sound.

Compadre, cómprame un coco. Buddy, buy me a coconut.Compadre, coco no compro, porque el que poco coco come, poco coco compra. Buddy, I don’t buy coconut, because those who eat little coconut, buy little coconut.

Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. As I eat little coconut, I buy little coconut.