Sounds to drill
Tongue twisters in Spanish repeat the rolled RR, Ñ, and TR until your mouth learns where they sit.
Hear tongue twisters in Spanish, read the English meaning, and record your own try right in your browser.
Say these tongue twisters in Spanish three times fast
Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal.
Your recording stays on this device. Nothing is uploaded. Hear it uses your device's Spanish voice, so it varies by device.
Tongue twisters in Spanish are called trabalenguas, from trabar, to tangle, and lengua, tongue. They are short rhymes that pile similar sounds together. Most were passed down through families and schools, so nobody knows who wrote them.
People use tongue twisters in Spanish for laughs, as classroom warm-ups, and to drill sounds English does not have. Every line here comes with an English meaning and the sound it trains. Hear it, record your attempt, and compare the two.
Tongue twisters in Spanish repeat the rolled RR, Ñ, and TR until your mouth learns where they sit.
Spanish spelling is close to phonetic, so you can read tongue twisters in Spanish aloud before you know every word.
Some lines make little sense even in Spanish. Get the sounds right first.
Filter these tongue twisters in Spanish by level, then press the microphone beside a line to try it.
Short tongue twisters in Spanish for beginners. Most repeat a single sound, so start here.
Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal.
TR · Three sad tigers swallow wheat in a wheat field.
Mi mamá me mima mucho.
M · My mom spoils me a lot.
Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Qué clavito clavó Pablito?
CL · Little Pablo hammered in a small nail. What small nail did Little Pablo hammer in?
Como poco coco como, poco coco compro.
C · Since I eat little coconut, I buy little coconut.
Juan junta juncos junto a la zanja.
J · Juan gathers reeds beside the ditch.
Rosa Rizo reza en ruso, en ruso reza Rosa Rizo.
R · Rosa Rizo prays in Russian, in Russian prays Rosa Rizo.
Ñoño Yáñez come ñame en las mañanas con el niño.
Ñ · Dimwit Yáñez eats yam in the mornings with the boy.
Hoy ya es ayer y ayer ya es hoy.
Y, LL · Today is already yesterday and yesterday is already today.
These tongue twisters in Spanish run longer and add the rolled RR and word stress.
Cuando cuentes cuentos, cuenta cuántos cuentos cuentas.
CU · When you tell stories, count how many stories you tell.
Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántas planchas plancha Pancha?
CH · Pancha irons with four irons. With how many irons does Pancha iron?
El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo, porque Ramón Ramírez se lo ha robado.
RR · San Roque's dog has no tail, because Ramón Ramírez stole it.
Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril. Rápido corren los carros cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril.
RR · R with R in cigar, R with R in barrel. The rail cars run fast, loaded with sugar.
El vino vino, pero el vino no vino vino. El vino vino vinagre.
B, V · The wine came, but the wine did not come as wine. The wine came as vinegar.
Si yo como como como y tú comes como comes, ¿cómo comes como comes?
Stress · If I eat how I eat and you eat how you eat, how do you eat how you eat?
Long lines and invented words. Native speakers trip on these tongue twisters in Spanish too.
Parra tenía una perra. Guerra tenía una parra.
RR · Parra had a dog. Guerra had a grapevine.
María Chucena su choza techaba, y un techador que por allí pasaba le dijo: María Chucena, ¿tú techas tu choza o techas la ajena?
CH · María Chucena was roofing her hut, and a roofer asked: are you roofing your hut or someone else's?
Me han dicho un dicho que han dicho que he dicho yo.
D, CH · They told me a saying that they said I said.
El cielo está enladrillado. ¿Quién lo desenladrillará? El desenladrillador que lo desenladrille, buen desenladrillador será.
DR, LL · The sky is bricked over. Who will unbrick it? Whoever unbricks it will be a good unbricker.
Si seis sierras sierran seis cipreses, seiscientas seis sierras sierran seiscientos seis cipreses.
S · If six saws saw six cypresses, six hundred six saws saw six hundred six cypresses.
El volcán de Parangaricutirimícuaro se quiere desparangaricutirimicuarizar.
Long words · The Parangaricutirimícuaro volcano wants to stop being from Parangaricutirimícuaro.
Pick by the sound you keep missing. English has no exact match for several, so tongue twisters in Spanish make useful drills.
| Sound | Try this line | How to make it |
|---|---|---|
| RR | El perro de San Roque | Keep your tongue loose and let air flutter the tip behind your top teeth. |
| TR | Tres tristes tigres | Make one quick tongue tap after the T, close to the D in ladder. |
| Ñ | Ñoño Yáñez | Press the middle of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, like NY in canyon. |
| Y | Hoy ya es ayer | Most speakers say Y as in yes. Argentina and Uruguay lean closer to SH. |
| J | Juan junta juncos | Breathe out from the back of your throat, stronger than an English H. |
| S, Z | Si seis sierras | Latin America says S for both. Most of Spain says TH for Z. |
These tongue twisters in Spanish are practice, not a course or speech therapy.
With tongue twisters in Spanish, vowels and stress come before speed. Five minutes a day is plenty.
Check the English first so tongue twisters in Spanish feel less random. Then go slowly, one phrase at a time.
Spanish has five short vowels. Do not let them drift the way English vowels do.
Press Hear it and notice where the voice leans. A written accent, as in clavó, marks the stress.
Play back your try and fix one sound. Add speed only after a clean round.
Move past easy tongue twisters in Spanish once you can say a line three times fast without a slip.
These games work for tongue twisters in Spanish at school or at home.
Each player draws one of these tongue twisters in Spanish and says it three times. One slip and you are out.
One player says a line and the next repeats it faster. Whoever trips picks a new line.
Everyone records the same line. Play the tries back and vote for the clearest and the funniest.
When tongue twisters in Spanish stop being hard enough, try matching your voice to a moving mouth with our voice acting scripts and dubbing game.
Tongue twisters in Spanish are called trabalenguas, and the word stays the same for one or many: el trabalenguas, los trabalenguas. It joins trabar, to tangle or jam, with lengua, tongue. You will hear it in schools across Spain and Latin America.
Among tongue twisters in Spanish, Tres tristes tigres is the one most learners meet first. It means three sad tigers swallow wheat in a wheat field, and it drills the TR sound. Wording shifts by region, so you may also see tragaban in place of tragan.
There is no official winner. The Parangaricutirimícuaro line is a common pick because it builds an invented verb on a Mexican place name. The María Chucena rhyme and the desenladrillador line also trip up native speakers. All three of these tongue twisters in Spanish are in the Hard group.
They help you notice and repeat specific sounds, such as RR or Ñ, and recording shows what you actually said. They will not teach grammar or conversation, and speed alone will not fix a wrong sound. Treat tongue twisters in Spanish as a short warm-up alongside real speaking practice.
Start with El perro de San Roque and Erre con erre cigarro. Say the RR words slowly and keep your tongue loose so air can flutter the tip. Some people need weeks to get a steady trill, so keep sessions short and record one try a day.
No. Your recording stays in your browser on this device and disappears when you leave the page or record again. Nothing goes to our servers, and you do not need an account to try these tongue twisters in Spanish. Your browser asks for microphone access the first time.
Tongue twisters in Spanish warm up your mouth. Our dubbing game puts your voice on a movie or cartoon scene you can watch back.
Play the dubbing game