Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish tongue twisters are a great way to improve your Spanish pronunciation because they drill you on the shapes that your mouth should be making when pronouncing Spanish words. And, unfortunately, pronunciation tends to be a forgotten aspect of learning Spanish.

That being said, I’ve collected these Spanish tongue twisters and organized them by the sounds that they train, so you can spend your time wisely.

For example, many of you won’t have any issues with consonant sounds (B, S, etc.), but should really focus in on your R/rr sounds and your vowels, because these are the sounds that are very different from English.

Go through the different sounds and see which ones feel more and less comfortable in your mouth. Everybody’s different!

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Using these tongue twisters effectively

Before you go searching through the right tongue twisters to exercise the right sound for you, remember that you’re exercising your mouth/tongue, which means actual physical exercise. What do you do before physical exercise? Stretch!

The worst thing you can do is start these with a closed mouth. Get your blood flowing! Move your face and mouth around. Sing a song, get up from your chair and dance around. Open your mouth up wide and make funny sounds.

Get your mouth and your brain ready for some serious movement. Get your blood flowing and your muscles moving. Then and only then are you ready to practice some tongue twisters!

B/V Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Busco al vasco bizco brusco.

English: I’m looking for the rude cross-eyed Basque.

Spanish: Buscaba el bosque Francisco, un vasco bizco, muy brusco, y al verlo le dijo un chusco, ¿Busca el bosque, vasco bizco?

English: He was looking for the Francisco forest, a cross-eyed Basque, very abrupt, and when he saw him, he said, “Are you looking for the forest, cross-eyed Basque?”

Spanish: Juan tuvo un tubo, y el tubo que tuvo se le rompió, y para recuperar el tubo que tuvo, tuvo que comprar un tubo igual al tubo que tuvo.

English: Juan had a tube, and the tube he had was broken, and to recover the tube he had, he had to buy a tube equal to the tube he had.

Ch Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Chiquito chanchito cochinito, echado en la charca está, ¡ah! qué chiquito chanchito cochinito que cochinito está.

English: Teeny, darling, baby, thrown in the pool. Ah! How teeny, darling, baby how darling you are.

Spanish: María Chucena techaba su choza y un techador que por allí pasaba le dijo: María Chucena, ¿Techas tu choza o techas la ajena? Ni techo mi choza ni techo la ajena, que techo la choza de María Chucena.

English: Maria Chucena covered her hut and a roofer who was passing by said, “Maria Chucena, do you roof your hunt or other people’s roofs?” Neither roof my hut nor roof another’s that roof Maria Chucena’s hut.

G Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Eugenio es muy ingenuo. ¡qué genio tiene el ingenuo de Eugenio!

English: Eugene is very naive. What genius has the naivete of Eugene!

Spanish: De generación en generación las generaciones se degeneran con mayor degeneración.

English: From generation to generation the generations degenerate with more degeneracy.

Spanish: El gendarme dice al agente, mucha gente se agenda en la agencia.

English: The policeman tells the agent, many people are scheduled at the agency.

J Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Juan junta juncos junto a la zanja.

English: Juan gathers reeds by the ditch.

Ll Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: El suelo está enladrillado. ¿Quién lo desenladrillará? El desenladrillador que lo desenladrillare un buen desenladrillador será.

English: The ground is paved with bricks. Who will unpave it? The unpaver who unpaves it a good unpaver will be.

M Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: ¡Esmerílemelo!

English: Polish it for me.

Ñ Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Ñoño Yáñez come ñame en las mañanas con el niño.

English: Ñoño Yáñez eats yams in the mornings with the boy.

O Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Como poco coco como, poco coco compro.

English: Since I eat little coconut, little coconut I buy.

Spanish: Compré pocas copas, pocas copas compré, como compré pocas copas, pocas copas pagaré.

English: I will buy few drinking glasses, few drinking glasses I will buy, as I will buy few drinking cups, few drinking cups will I pay.

P Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Poquito a poquito, Paquito empaca poquitas copitas en poco paquetes.

English: Little by little, Paquito packs a few tiny glasses in a few packages.

Spanish: Pepe puso un peso en el piso del pozo. En el piso del pozo Pepe puso en peso.

English: Pepe put a peso on the floor of the well. On the floor of the well, Pepe put a peso.

Spanish: Pepe Peña pela papa, pica piña, pita un pito, pica piña, pela papa, Pepe Peña.

English: Pepe Peña peels potatoes, cuts pineapple, blows a whistle, cuts pineapple, peels potatoes, Pepe Peña.

Spanish: En la población de Puebla, pueblo muy poblado, hay una plaza pública poblada de pueblerinos.

English: In the city of Puebla, a very populated town, there is a public plaza populated with Pueblans.

Spanish: El hipopótamo Hipo está con hipo. ¿Quién le quita el hipo al hipopótamo Hipo?

English: Hipo the hippopotamus has a hiccup. Who is curing the hiccup for the hippopotamus Hipo?

Spanish: Papá pon pan para Pepín, para Pepín pon pan papá.

English: Dad serves bread for Pepin, for Pepin Dad serves bread.

Spanish: Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántas planchas Pancha plancha?

English: Pancha iron with four plates. How many Pancha irons do you iron?

R/rr Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Si don Curro ahorra ahora, ahora ahorra don Curro.

English: If Curro is saving now, now is Curro saving.

Spanish: Por la calle Carretas pasaba un perrito; pasó una carreta, le pilló el rabito. ¡Pobre perrito, como lloraba por su rabito!

English: A puppy walked through Carretas street; a cart passed by and ran over his dear tail. Poor puppy, how he cried for his dear tail!

Spanish: Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril. Rápido corren los carros, sobre los rieles del ferrocarril.

English: R with R cigar, R with R barrel. Quickly run the carriages on the rails of the railway.

Spanish: Un perro rompe la rama del árbol.

English: A dog breaks the tree branch.

Spanish: Camarero, desencamarónamelo.

English: Waiter, unscrew it.

Spanish: El perro cachorro de Roque Machorro se enreda en la ropa, se enrosca cual cuerda y se enreda en la rueca de Rosa Rueda.

English: The Roque Machorro puppy dog is entangled in clothes, curled up like a rope, and entangled in Rosa Rueda’s spinning wheel.

S Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: La sucesión sucesiva de sucesos sucede sucesivamente con la sucesión del tiempo.

English: The successive series of events occurs successively with the succession of time.

Spanish: El niño está sosegado. ¿Quién lo desasosegará? El desasosegador que lo desasosiegue, buen desasosegador será.

English: The child is tranquil. Who will disturb him? The disturber who disturbs him will be a good disturber.

Spanish: Si la sierva que te sirve, no te sirve como sierva, de qué sirve que te sirvas de una sierva que no sirve.

English: 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.

T Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: ¡Qué triste estás, Tristán, con tan tétrica trama teatral!

English: How sad you are, Tristán, with such a gloomy theatrical tale!

Spanish: Tres tristes tigres comían trigo en tres tristes platos sentados en un trigal.

English: Three sad tigers were eating wheat on three sad plates placed in a wheat field.

Spanish: Una cacatrepa trepa tiene tres cacatrepitos. Cuando la cacatrepa trepa trepan los tres cacatrepitos.

English: A climbing caterpillar has three baby caterpillars. When the climbing caterpillar climbs the three baby caterpillars climb.

Spanish: Toto toma té, Tita toma mate, y yo me tomo toda mi taza de chocolate.

English: Toto drinks tea, Tita drinks mate, and I drink up all my cup of chocolate.

U Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Cuando cuentes cuentos, cuenta cuantos cuentos cuentas, porque si no cuentas cuantos cuentos cuentas nunca sabrás cuantos cuentos cuentas tú.

English: When you tell me stories, tell me how many stories you tell me, because if you don’t tell me how many stories you are telling me, you will never now how many stories you are telling me.

Spanish: El amor es una locura que solo el cura lo cura, pero el cura que lo cura comete una gran locura.

English: Love is a great lunacy that only a priest can cure, but the priest who cures it commits a great lunacy.

Spanish: Yo vi en un huerto un cuervo cruento comerse el cuero del cuerpo del puerco muerto.

English: I saw, in a vegetable patch, a blood-covered crow eating the hide of the body of the dead swine.

Y Spanish tongue twisters

Spanish: Hoy ya es ayer y ayer ya es hoy, ya llegó el día, y hoy es hoy.

English: Today is yesterday and yesterday is today, the day has arrived, and today is today.

The importance of pronunciation

Like I said, learning to pronounce Spanish words gets forgotten a lot of the time. Most language learning resources kind of skip over it, mostly because language learners don’t care about it and aren’t likely to pay for it.

If you’re one of the brave language learners out there who are more interested in learning to pronounce Spanish sounds correctly and dump your accent, I would personally recommend The Mimic Method. It’s the only tried and true way to master the actual sounds of the Spanish language!