Trabalenguas en inglés, una divertida manera para que los niños practiquen el idioma

Los trabalenguas en inglés (tongue twisters, literalmente ‘retorcimientos o enredos de lengua’) son una de las mejores y más divertidas actividades para practicar y mejorar el idioma para estudiantes de todos los niveles y edades. En primer lugar, porque la pronunciación es uno de los aspectos que más trabajo y esfuerzo suelen costar a la hora de aprenderlo, pero es fundamental, y los trabalenguas son juegos de palabras que forman parte de la cultura de cada país y existen en todos los idiomas. En segundo lugar, suelen ser textos breves, compuestos con términos fonéticamente llamativos y con una pronunciación que se complica según se va avanzando. Principalmente, se usan con fines didácticos, pero, a la vez, entretienen, así que pueden considerarse un juego más.

A continuación, presentamos una lista de trabalenguas cortos y fáciles a los que siguen otros largos y más complicados para los distintos niveles de aprendizaje del inglés. Aunque muchos no suelen tener sentido, son una buena manera de dominar los sonidos y aprender vocabulario.

Para terminar, hay que destacar que sus beneficios son varios, como la musicalidad que contienen y que puede animar a los niños más pequeños; la activación de la memoria y el interés por el idioma, la mejora de la dicción de sonidos en general y la consideración de reto o competición.

Trabalenguas cortos

• I wish you were a fish in my dish. Be a fish in my dish, please.
• Sheena leads, Sheila needs.
• Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
• Four furious friends fought for the phone.
• Green glass globes glow greenly.
• The queen in green screamed.
• He threw three balls.
• Roofs of mushrooms rarely mush too much.
• The great Greek grape growers grow great Greek grapes.
• Octopus ocular optics.
• She sees cheese.
• Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.
• How many saws could a see-saw saw if a see-saw could saw saws?
• Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
• Chester Cheetah chewed a chunk, of cheap cheddar cheese.
• Double bubble gum, bubbles double.
• Why do you cry, Willy?
  Why do you cry?
  Why, Willy?
  Why, Willy?
  Why, Willy? Why?
• Whether the weather be fine
  or whether the weather be not.
  Whether the weather be cold
  or whether the weather be hot.
  We’ll weather the weather
  whether we like it or not.
• One-one was a race horse.
  Two-two was one too.
  One-one won one race.
  Two-two won one too.
• There are two minutes difference from four to two,
  to two to two,
  from two to two to two, too.

Trabalenguas largos

• I have got a date, I have got a date at a quarter to eight; I’ll see you at the gate, so don’t be late.
• I see a sea down by the seashore.
  But which sea do you see down by the seashore?
• The big black bug bit the big black bear, but the big black bear bit the big black bug back.
• One-one was a race horse. Two-two was one too. One-one won one race. Two-two won one too.
• If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?
• I slit a sheet, a sheet, I slit.
  Upon a slitted sheet, I sit.

Trabalenguas en inglés para niveles avanzados

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
• How much ground would a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hog ground? A groundhog would hog all the ground he could hog, if a groundhog could hog ground.
• If Pickford’s packers packed a packet of crisps would the packet of crisps that Pickford’s packers packed survive for two and a half years?
• I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.
• How many cookies could a good cook cook If a good cook could cook cookies? A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.
• A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
  Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
  Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
  So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
• Betty bought some butter, 
  but the butter was bitter,
  so Betty bought some better butter
  to make the bitter butter better.
• Luke Luck likes lakes.
  Luke’s duck likes lakes.
  Luke Luck licks lakes.
  Luck’s duck licks lakes.
  Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes.
  Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.

Esperamos que os haya gustado esta selección de trabalenguas en inglés para niños y estudiantes de todos los niveles. Si queréis practicar con poemas, tenemos algunas buenas propuestas aquí.