This is one of a series of videos called Adivina la palabra de hoy (Guess Today’s Word). The series is produced by Fundación de la Lengua Española, a private non-profit from Spain that promotes the teaching of Spanish. In the videos, children describe a common word for viewers to guess. At the end of the video, the word appears on the screen. All of the videos are short, about one minute long, and the kids are really entertaining as they describe the words.
These videos are an excellent Spanish language activity. The words in the descriptions tend to be used together or are associated with the word you are trying to guess. This is an effective way to expand vocabulary.
Adivina la palabra de hoy is also great listening practice. The sentences are short and the children speak directly to the camera. Children will not understand every word of the description, but that is fine. They are practicing listening for the main idea, that is, how the words that they do understand come together to communicate one concept. This is an important skill in language learning. Children need the opportunity to practice in order to develop the ability to distinguish the words they know.
This is a list of the common key words that the children use in the following video. You can listen for these words with your child and try to guess what is being described. The mystery word will be shown at the end of the video, but if you want to know before you listen, scroll down. A transcript, translation and the answer follow the video.
va – it goes
vías – tracks
lleva/llevan – it carries/they carry
se para – it stops
estaciones – stations
ruedas – wheels
personas – people
hay – there is/there are
asientos – seats
camas – beds
maletas – suitcases
grandes – big ones
pequeños – small ones
Va por las vías, hace chu-chu, y se para en las estaciones. / It goes on tracks, goes choo-choo, and stops at stations.
Tiene ruedas. / It has wheels.
Lleva muchas, muchas personas. / It carries many, many people.
Hay asientos. / There are seats.
A veces hay, cuando vas a un sitio muy, muy largo, pues, a veces hay camas y cosas así. / Sometimes there are, when you go to a place very very far away, sometimes there are beds and things like that.
Llevan maletas. / They carry suitcases.
Y hay grandes y pequeños. / There are big ones and small ones.
The word being described is el tren – train.
