15 Spanish Tongue Twisters To Exercise Your Mouth

Think you have just nailed the pronunciation of the Spanish language just by memorizing the small list of pronunciation rules off your Spanish primer? If so, test the depth of your proficiency with some challenging Spanish trabalenguas (tongue twisters) and see where you stand. Chances are, they will stretch your limits beyond horizons not much known before. These tongue twisters should most likely have you in knots even if you happened to be a native speaker of the Spanish language. Just like English or any other language, Spanish is full of such phrases to give the speakers’ tongues more than a fair share of workout.

Just fun? Not really

Spanish tongue twisters, like those in any other language, contribute to your learning process in three immensely interesting ways:

1. Vocabulary – By virtue of their rhyming nature and the amount of focus they require as a part of the associated challenge, tongue twisters stick to your memory like glue and thus help augment your vocabulary very much like music does.


2. Motivation – The bragging rights that come along if you are capable of rattling out a bunch of impossible-sounding phrases in an alien lingo is no insignificant motivation. This motivation, in turn, bolsters your stamina to further your cause, i.e., absorption of Spanish until native-level fluency.


3. Fluency – By virtue of their very nature, tongue twisters are one of the best tools available to exercise your facial muscles and vocal chords and get acclimatized to producing Spanish sounds. Knowing the rules of Spanish pronunciation is one thing and being able to rapidly pronounce Spanish syllables in quick succession is another. If your goal is fluency in Spanish, tongue twisters will surely make life easier for you.



Tongue twisters are the best drills for pronunciation
Photo credit: Christopher licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The easier ones

Now, let’s strap up our boots and get ready to warm up our vocal chords with these most common Spanish tongue twisters; here we go with some of the easier ones:

• ¿Cuántos cuentos cuentas cuando cuentas cuentos? How many stories do you tell when you tell stories?
• ¡Qué triste estás, Tristán, con tan tétrica trama teatral! How sad you are, Tristán, with such a gloomy theatrical tale!
• Yo no compro coco, porque como poco coco como, poco coco compro. I don’t buy coconut, since as I eat little coconut, little coconut I buy.
• Busco al vasco bizco brusco. I’m looking for the rude cross-eyed Basque.
• El vino vino, pero el vino no vino vino, el vino vino vinagre. The wine came, but the wine didn’t come as wine, the wine came as vinegar.
• Si don Curro ahorra ahora, ahora ahorra don Curro. If Curro is saving now, now is Curro saving.
• Tres platos de trigo para tres tigres tristes. Three plates of wheat for three sad tigers.
• 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.
• Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Qué clavito clavó Pablito? Pablito nailed a little nail. What little nail did Pablito nail?

Well, there are many more of them to get your tongue in knots or rather unravel your tongue for the sounds and rhythms of Spanish. Practice these for starters and you should feel reasonably comfortable with producing the language when it comes to speaking. If, however, you feel like challenging yourself further, read on for some of the relatively harder ones.

For the daredevils

Now, time to take it to the next level. The tongue twisters that follow are the ultimate for the most daring players and being able to produce them flawlessly in loop would ensure a fluency closer to that of native speakers.

• 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.
• El suelo está enladrillado. ¿Quién lo desenladrillará? El desenladrillador que lo desenladrillare un buen desenladrillador será. The ground is paved with bricks. Who will unpave it? The unpaver who unpaves it a good unpaver will be.
• Compadre de la capa parda, no compre usted mas capa parda, que el que mucha capa parda compra, mucha capa parda paga. Yo que mucha capa parda compré, mucha capa parda pagué. Brother of the brown cloak, don’t buy anymore brown cloaks, because he who buys many brown cloaks, pays for many brown cloaks. I, who bought many brown cloaks, paid for many brown cloaks.
• El niño está sosegado. ¿Quién lo desasosegará? El desasosegador que lo desasosiegue, buen desasosegador será. The child is tranquil. Who will disturb him? The disturber who disturbs him will be a good disturber.
• En la población de Puebla, pueblo muy poblado, hay una plaza pública poblada de pueblerinos. In the city of Puebla, a very populated town, there is a public plaza populated with Pueblans.
• Erre con Erre Cigarro,
  
Erre con Erre Barril,
  Rápido ruedan las ruedas
  Sobre los rieles del ferrocarril.
  R with R cigar,
  
R with R barrel,
  
Quickly run the cars
  
Over the rails of the railroad.
  
  This one is an excellent tool to help you wire your tongue for the Spanish “r” and oh-so-Spanish “rolled-rr” sounds (erre is the Spanish name for the letter “r”).

That should be all for now. Hope these fun lines help you exercise your facial muscles and get you fluent in Spanish as rapidly as you aspire. Need more? Scour the Internet and you will find hundreds of snippets for this purpose, some easier, some harder. Just be sure to stay persistent however hard they appear.  The rewards of mastering them are worth every pain they give when you are starting out. Loop them on and on till perfection. Got one you find particularly interesting or just damn hard to get your tongue around? Do share it with the rest of us!