Choosing rhymes in Spanish, like eeny-meeny-miny-mo in English, are an easy way to add Spanish to your home or classroom. They are fun for children to say, and teach them Spanish pronunciation and rhythm. There are many different choosing rhymes in Spanish and many variations of each one.
De tin marín, is the most common of these rhymes in Latin America, and my children used it in Mexico with their friends. The last line is about hitting, and is not something that I would choose to teach my children, but I understand that it is a traditional rhyme. In my classes, I use the other rhymes. The other choosing rhymes also have the advantage of being shorter, and they do not use nonsense words. They work really well with Spanish-language learners.
For more choosing rhymes, see these posts on Piedra, papel o tijera (Rock, paper scissors) and Cinco ratoncitos (Five mice).
I thought this was a good topic for playing with acapela.tv. It is a text to speech site with animation, and it is a lot of fun.
- This is a simple short rhyme. It uses the question that children ask each other so often: How old are you?
El cielo es azul. / The sky is blue.
¿Cuántos años tienes tú? / How old are you?
The person that you are pointing to when you say “tú” says how old she is. Then you count to that number. The person you are pointing to when you finish counting is “it”or is out.
- This is another short rhyme.
Zapatito blanco, zapatito azul. / Little white shoe, little blue shoe.
Dime ¿cuántos años tienes tú? / Tell me, how old are you?
Again, the person you are pointing to when you say “tú” says how old she is. You count the number and the person you land on is out.
- This rhyme is about a rotten apple.
Manzana, manzana / Apple, apple
manzana podrida. / rotten apple.
Uno, dos, tres, salida. / One, two, three, out.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I include this rhyme here because it is traditional and so common. I do not teach it in my classes, but it is undoubtedly the most common choosing rhyme in Latin America. The first two lines are nonsense words.
De tin marín, de dos pingüé,
cúcara mácara, títere fue.
Yo no fui, fue Teté, / It wasn’t I. It was Teté.
Pégale, pégale, que ella fue. / Hit her. Hit her. It was she.
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