Watch more: - Learn Spanish Phrases for Beginners In this exciting adventure, kids learn Spanish words for colors, toys, clothes. The noun play can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be play. However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be plays e.g. In reference to various types of plays or a collection of plays. The noun play can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be play. However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be plays e.g. In reference to various types of plays or a collection of plays. (My mother is tall and blonde.) If you use photos of animals instead of people, you can incorporate a review of Spanish animal sounds as well. El Taxista (Taxi Driver) Vocabulary Topic: Professions and workplaces. Materials: Play money, stations around the classroom with two chairs side by side. Translations in context of 'play' in English-Spanish from Reverso Context: to play, play in, play an important role, don't play, play for.
Let’s shuffle your Spanish learning.
Let’s mix things up and pick out some fun, new language learning tools from the deck.
What better place to start than Spanish card games?
They’re collaborative, they’re entertaining and best of all they force you to put your Spanish skills to use—quickly!
Whether you’re playing card games you already know and love, games made for Spanish learners or authentic games from the Spanish-speaking world (we’ll cover all of these below!) you’ll be getting essential speaking and listening practice you just don’t find elsewhere.
Let’s deal you in!
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Why Use Card Games to Learn Spanish?
Fun and games—what’s not to love? Listen, when we were kids learning how to speak, understand, read and write in our native languages, we did that in large part through play. Whether it was peekaboo with our parents or word games in elementary school, learning in a fun, playful environment just made sense.
But there’s also science to back it up. Studies indicate that play has a direct link to learning.
Which just shows that learning a language should have some element of enjoyment in it, no matter what age you are!
Card games in particular give learners a chance to practice vocabulary, counting and other skills in a fun but structured environment. You’ll be absorbing essential skills and you’ll likely have an easier time remembering them than if you’d plucked them out of a textbook with no context.
Plus, the friendly competition of a card game will boost your motivation to keep practicing and learning!
How to Best Use Card Games to Learn Spanish
The focus is on language learning, so speak Spanish while playing. Keep that front and center in your mind. Regardless of the card game you choose or what the rules are, the object is language practice and acquisition, so Spanish should be spoken throughout. Por ejemplo (For example), here are some key expressions you’ll be using during your card games:
- ¿Alguien tiene una carta azul? (Does anyone have a blue card?)
- Tengo una carta alta. (I have a high card.)
- Es tu turno. (It’s your turn.)
- If your partner asks “¿Tiene una tarjeta de cinco?” (“Do you have a five card?”) hopefully you’ll be able to lay one down with a triumphant, opponent-crushing “¡Aquí!” (“Here!”)
Don’t forget to name the colors, numbers and objects on the cards in Spanish!
Even if it feels awkward initially, keep at it. You’ll be (pleasantly!) surprised as the game progresses because speaking Spanish will feel more natural as you go along.
There’s not just one type of Spanish card game! Below, we’ll first show you some card games that play well in Spanish, including a couple that were specifically designed for Spanish learners.
Then we’ll show you some authentic card games from the Spanish-speaking world, which won’t just help your Spanish skills, but will also give you some common ground with native speakers.
If you enjoy learning while playing games, you’ll also like using FluentU.
FluentU takes real-world videos, like music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks, and turns them into Spanish learning experiences.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of videos—topics like soccer, TV shows, business, movies and even magical realism, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.
Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and it recommends you examples and videos based on the words you’ve already learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning the same video.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store for iOS and Android devices.
Games That Play Well in Spanish
Uno
Most of us have played some serious Uno. It’s just a go-everywhere, play-anytime card game that’s suitable for everyone—from young children to their grandparents.
And I’m sure you notice the name of the game? Literally, uno means “one” in Spanish so it already has a Spanish-speaking (and thinking!) link to it.
Fun in English? Certainly. But it’s even more amazing in Spanish!
Think color and number learning with this one. Sequencing, too. This game forces the mind to make connections in Spanish. When a red four card is played you either need to place una carta roja (a red card) or una carta de cuatro (a four card) down. For younger or beginning language learners, rounds can move slowly, but as proficiency increases, so can the rate of play.
Don’t have the card you need? ¡Toma una carta! (Take a card!)
If you really want to give your opponent trouble, remember “Take four cards” is “Tomar cuatro cartas.”
And when you’re laying down one of the heavy cards, smile as you watch your opponent squirm because a smile translates—no words needed!
KLOO
This pack comes with two decks of cards with Spanish words and phrases. The game is specifically designed for language learners--players increase vocabulary skills (and score points) while building sentences with the cards.
Classic KLOO is designed for learners up to the intermediate level and is even accessible to absolute beginners. The cards are color-coded and have arrows as hints to help formulate sentences. Then, the trick is to translate! Scores are kept and points are awarded, giving this the potential to be a very competitive activity!
It’s a great concept and forces players to use skills and vocabulary they already have while introducing additional vocabulary. Also, sentence structure is presented in a hands-on manner. Moving the cards around shows the different ways words connect.
In this way, it provides clear grammar demonstrations that are especially beneficial to those learners who may need visual concept reinforcement.
¡Dígame!
¡Dígame! literally means “tell me,” so you know this game is going to have lots of vocabulary and speaking practice—covered with laughs and coated with entertainment.
Actually speaking Spanish—as opposed to silently studying—is essential if you want to become fluent. To achieve higher proficiency, anything that encourages fluid speech, language recognition and word acquisition is a game-changer (pun intended).
¡Dígame revolves around actually speaking to learn new words or phrases. Players assist one another using only Spanish to describe the vocabulary on individual cards. When a phrase is mastered, it’s put in a pile for a challenge round—which is the time to prove you’ve actually tucked what’s on the card into your Spanish vocabulary! (Check out this video to learn more about how gameplay works.)
It’s an immersive language-learning game that’s appropriate for new learners as well as those with some Spanish language skills. One person fairly proficient in Spanish is enough to keep this game rolling for as long as the group wants to play.
¡Perfecto! (Perfect!)
Authentic Spanish Card Games
If you want to see how people in Spanish-speaking countries play cards, pick up some traditional Spanish cards.
A baraja española (Spanish card deck) is different than the standard 52-card deck most of us have hanging around. These typically have 40 to 50 cartas (cards).
The suits are: copas (cups), oros (coins), bastos (clubs) and espadas (swords).
It’s easy to find decks of Spanish cards in specialty shops or on Amazon so there’s nothing holding you back from some authentic Spanish card games, is there?
Chinchon
Chinchon is a game for two to 12 players and is similar to Rummy. It’s a simple draw-and-discard game that focuses on matching pairs and making runs. This is a very popular card game in Spain; in Uruguay a variation called Conga is played.
The objective is to use your card to build a chinchon—seven consecutive cards of the same suit.
We take the talents of building and sequencing for granted but really, we didn’t always know how to do that. We learned—and that type of knowledge benefits Spanish language students because it applies to other areas of language, as well. Consider how we gain the ability to conjugate verbs or sort idioms. Those are build-and-sequence skills so anything that’ll strengthen those gets us closer to language proficiency.
Think about it—become an expert now, so when you’re in Madrid you’ll build the cards like a local! And with the language practice you gain from this game, you’ll speak like one, too!
Looking for partners or want to take the game to go? Play on the run with the app (App Store/Google Play). There are even online communities to interact with from across the globe. Native Spanish speakers take this to a whole new level!
Tute
Tute is one of the most popular games played with the Spanish deck. It accommodates two to four players and is a simple game where cards are thrown on the table one-by-one—every player’s objective is to have the highest value card on the table. The person with the highest card wins all the others. Points are tallied when all cards have been played, and the person with the most wins the hand.
The game itself originated in Italy—the name Tute comes from the Italian word tutti, which means “all.”
The player who collects all cuatro reyes (four kings) can call tute, ending the round with the collector victorious. This scramble to gather kings can inspire good-natured trash talk. Goad your competition, act as if you’ve got a king or two in your hand and make the others wonder who really has the kings (all in Spanish, of course!).
Again, speak only Spanish during play and pick up phrases and words almost effortlessly. Build vocabulary and increase reasoning skills with this fast-paced game.
Having fun and learning? ¡Todo bien! (All good!)
Away from the cards? Play with apps (App Store/Google Play)! Bonus? Your online amigos de cartas (card friends) could be from anywhere on the globe!
Escoba
Escoba means “broom” in Spanish. The name of this game probably derives from the chance to “sweep” the table and capture points.
It’s a super-fast, interactive, fun game for two or more players. Once all the players have three cards, the dealer turns four cards face up on the table. These are the cards open paracapturar (to capture). It requires thinking on the fly, which forces players to use strategic decision-making skills. In English? Not so difficult. But in Spanish? It’ll definitely stretch even an intermediate learner’s abilities. That means you’ll boost your skills quickly!
Game play progresses until all the cards have been used and the maximum number of captures has taken place. Points are tracked and the one with the highest score is declared the winner.
Capturing cards requires number skills because captures occur when the face card values add up to quince (fifteen). You’ll be counting in Spanish under pressure!
Escobas (sweeps) are made when the card played captures all the table cards. It doesn’t happen with every round so be ready to cheer ¡Buen trabajo! (Good job!) if your partner manages to pull it off!
This one is simple enough for children to play. I learned Escoba at an early age and remember hours of laughter as we all tried to wrangle our way to higher scores!
Apps (App Store/Google Play) make it possible to play even when las cartas (the cards) aren’t with you!
Learning a language takes a lot of work but it definitely doesn’t have to be a day-in, day-out hit-the-books kind of a drag. And you know what? It shouldn’t be like that—ever! Language learning can be so interactive and cool—if you’re willing to play a few games and learn some new skills. Step outside of your comfort zone, lay down a good hand, sweep the table and learn Spanish like a pro.
¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn Spanish with real-world videos.
You want to localize your game into Spanish, OK, no worries there. However, are you aware that you need to choose whether to translate your game into Euro (Castilian) Spanish or Latin American (LatAm) Spanish? There are around 480 million native Spanish speaking people in the world spread across 22 countries. Localizing your game is the best way to reach them but then you have a choice to make: Which Spanish do you choose?
Important: “Latin American Spanish” isn’t actually an official language, there is a “neutral” LatAm Spanish that can be provided, but in reality it would be a mix of Mexican, Argentinian, Colombian etc. If looking to release into Central and South America then perhaps you should target a specific territory?
Anyway, the decision you make should be based on your research into which is the best market for your game. Are there further factors that you need to bear in mind when choosing? We interviewed four Spanish translators and gamers about the pros and cons from a language perspective.
Questions posed to:
- Ramón Méndez González - European Spanish (Spain),
- Curri Barceló Ávila - European Spanish (Spain),
- Javier Gómez - Argentinian Spanish,
- Manuel Gordillo Gonzalez - Mexican Spanish.
OK let’s get going.
1. What are the key differences between LatAm Spanish variants and Euro Spanish? Not just specific words but perhaps tone or usage?
Ramón, Spain: They are rather different. A Spanish user won’t easily accept a LatAm translation, as it may sound “not serious”. A few decades ago in Spain, we had LatAm dubbing for cartoons, and we made fun about that fact (we still do nowadays). The tone, the usage, even the pronunciation changes a lot and it’s rather difficult to have European users happy with a LatAm translation.
It’s the same the other way around: there’s no “LatAm Spanish”. In fact, Spanish is different in Spain, México, Colombia, Argentina, Peru… It should be adapted to every regional variety to offer the best value to each country. But, as that’s pretty difficult, the best option is to have at least Castilian Spanish and LatAm Spanish. In fact, it’s just a matter of doing a little adaptation from one to the other to make critical changes that are not accepted in the other variant.
Javier, Argentina: Simply put, LatAm Spanish tends to use simpler, more direct structures (simple verb tenses, less periphrases in some cases) and a more informal tone.
Manuel, Mexico: One element is attitude rather than phonetic aspect of it, I think that in Latin Spanish we “go round the bush” a whole lot more than European Spanish, who I think “cut to the chase” right away.
Curri, Spain: The biggest differences are in terminology and also how words are used, which may mean that a word that is totally normal in Spain, may be not that correct in Latin America.
For example, the verb “coger” (to grab/pick up) that we commonly use in Spain would be understood as “to have sex with someone” in Argentina. This may only make most of the Argentinian players giggle a bit, as they know that the word actually means “agarrar” (the word they use over there for grab), but rest assured that forums will have many screenshots of your game with the corresponding jokes.
On the other side, if you use “agarrar” for something that is just “pick up (from the floor)” it would be perfectly fine in Argentina, but it would sound weird in Spain (and some other Latin American countries) as it would mean to grab something with excessive force, as if it was going to run away.
Other changes can be found in the use of formal or informal. In Spain and most Latin American countries, formal mode ('usted', for “you”) is usually left to more polite situations, like talking to:* the elderly, * people you don’t know for the first time and to whom you want to be polite,* people you respect (your boss, a teacher while you are at school or even university),* someone at a public service (doctor, hospital, council),* someone of a superior rank in the army, etc.As the nature of videogames is rather informal, most of the text will be written in informal addressing ('tú'). Formal mode is left for just specific situations within a game where the formal mode is needed for characterization. For example, if your character is a soldier and the AI speaking to the player/soldier is meant to be the Captain, or when your character speaks to an old lady NPC.> However, in countries like Argentina, Uruguay and some Central American countries, they use the so-called *'voseo'* for the second person (use of *“vos”* instead of *“tú”*), which was quite common in the old Medieval Spanish. On the other hand, in Colombia and Costa Rica mainly, *“usted”* is used in both formal and informal contexts, so much so that a mother could address her child as *“usted”* as much as they would do to their own mother.
![](/upload-data/usage-of-tu-usted-vos-vosotros.png)
2. Is there (one) particular thing that clearly indicates you aren’t playing a version aimed at your particular locale?
Ramón, Spain: For example, in LatAm Spanish they talk in a formal way (“usted”, “vos”), while in Euro Spanish we use the informal way (“tú”). And, obviously, different vocabulary for common words as “car” (“coche” in Euro Spanish or “carro” in LatAm Spanish) that can result in difficult general comprehension of the text. “Carro” for a Euro user is “a cart”.
Curri, Spain: Terminology or abuse of English words (in cases where there is an existing common translation) are usually the things that make me realise a text was not translated into Spanish for Spain. For example, most Latin American software products use “ingresar” as the translation of both “log in” and “enter”, whereas in Spain we would use “iniciar sesión” and both “entrar” and “introducir”, depending on the context (enter in a place for the former or enter text in a text box for the latter).
Javier, Argentina: There are many things, but particular words like “vídeo” (which is “video” in LatAm, without diacritic) are clear signs. And of course, it’s totally clear if the game has dubbed voices.
Manuel, Mexico: The most obvious element is the accent, followed by the localisms and structures uncommonly used in that specific version of Spanish.
3. Are there words or phrases that jump out at you? Is it like playing a game where you would equip yourself with Armour only to find that it is Armor?
Ramón, Spain: The more complex the text are, the more difficult it can be to understand the text in another variant of Spanish. For example, “press” is a common term in video games that should be translated as “pulsar” in Euro Spanish or “oprimir” in LatAm. “Oprimir” would be understood as “oppress” in Euro Spanish.
Curri, Spain: As an example, we could use the “sea shell”. In Argentina, they would use “caracola” for ALL seashells to avoid the second double meaning. However, in Spain and most of Latin American countries, a “caracola” would be only the shell of a sea snail. If there was a game where you have to pick different shells from a seabed and we read “caracola”, non-Argentinian players may focus only on those coming from sea snail.
Javier, Argentina: Different translation for “you” (plural) which is “vosotros” in Spain and “ustedes” in LatAm. Interjections are also a marker (we don’t use “hostia”, “hala”, “enhorabuena” and several others).
Manuel, Mexico:“Loadout”, a very common term in shooters, and that in Mexico we know as “Equipo” and in Europe is known as “Equipamiento”, just strange. “Fusil” instead of “Rifle”, or “Granada fragmentaria” (frag grenade) instead of “Granada de fragmentación” in Ghost Recon, which drove me crazy every time I heard it from the NPC’s!
4. Would you play a game if you knew it wasn’t in the Spanish variant that you would want it in? Would you rather then play it in English? Would this affect your decision to buy?
Ramón, Spain: Unfortunately, the differences are so big that a game in LatAm Spanish can ruin the experience for you. In Spain, LatAm Spanish is never seen seriously.
In fact, Microsoft delivered a LatAm translation for Halo 2 and the game was heavily criticised due to that. For the Master Chief Collection, they deleted that dubbing for the Spanish market and delivered Halo 2 with English. This was criticised once again (as Halo 2 is the only Halo ever to not have Spanish translation and dubbing), but the English dubbing was preferred to the LatAm one.
Games like Telltale’s The Walking Dead, which are in LatAm Spanish, have been severely mocked and parodied by Spanish users, and I have friends that haven’t bought the game (despite loving TWD) due to that fact.
Source: Telltale Community
It’s also a game where you have to make decisions in seconds, but Spanish users do not always understand the choices they are given. Therefore, in a game where the dialogues and the text are so important, the language can be game-breaking and make it impossible to play for most users. Obviously, it’s better to have a game in LatAm Spanish than to have it just in English, but the ideal would be to have both variants and let users choose what works best for them.
How To Say What Sports Do You Play In Spanish
Curri, Spain: I wouldn’t mind, as, personally, I love Latin American accents. However, if the differences between each locale may stop me from fully understanding the game, I would definitely play it in English instead.
The whole purpose of playing a game in your language is enjoying it and understanding what you have to do. Having the game translated in my own locale would save me some time trying to guess what here or there is needed, and in many games, that is the difference between success or failure.
Javier, Argentina: In a perfect world, we would have country specific versions. But we are used to the most common one (Mexican Spanish) because all the cartoons and TV series we watched as we grew up were dubbed into ESMX. I think that a game in Argentinean Spanish would definitely be weird for a Mexican player.
I’d rather play the game in English than in a Spanish - that feels weird for me.
Manuel, Mexico: I grew up in a bilingual environment, so English or Spanish would be just Ok for me, however, if I ran into the “wrong” version of Spanish in my game that would really put me off and would think more than twice before buying it.
I remember back in the day I played the first “Rainbow Six” for the original Xbox in English due to this, and never bought another in the series, regardless of how much I enjoyed the one I had, just because its Spanish version was “European”.
I dealt with this situation with Rally games too. The co-driver tells you what the road is like up ahead and you adjust and you prepare to negotiate the turn as best as possible. Since I speak “American English” and Rallying is basically dominated by Europeans, British co-drivers killed me back in the day of Colin McRae 2004-5 and Richard Burns Rally; I could not understand a word. Dirt, had a Spaniard co-driver that I that I just couldn’t stand listening to, ended up doing 100% in English.
5. Do you think that the game genre affects the Spanish variant, or is this just a market size decision? Perhaps Euro Spanish is more in keeping with a Castle Builder for example?
Ramón, Spain: I think it affects almost every genre. Maybe in games with little text, like shoot’em ups or fighting games, that fact can be forgiven, but in games with a medium or high quantity of text, it’s important to deliver the variant users expect the game to have. If not, users can have problems understanding the story the game is trying to tell them.
Curri, Spain: Having another variant in a movie would simply mean that that person was raised in a different country. So, for example, if in the game there was one character that was Mexican, then, yes, it is perfectly fine to use Mexican Spanish for that character, but not for the rest of the characters if the story happens, let’s say, in Germany.
Javier, Argentina: I don’t think so; genre has nothing to do with that choice. And I do think that if a game is going to be localized into Spanish, both Castilian and Latin American should be present.
Manuel, Mexico: Perhaps to provide a specific context or ambiance for/around a certain character, sure, why not.
6. What are your thoughts when asked to translate into “neutral LatAm Spanish”? How is this achieved?
Javier, Argentina: As a matter of fact, there is no such thing in real life so the concept of neutral LatAm is vague and mutable. However, it is possible to find a balanced variant that’s understandable in all LatAm countries. It’s what we LatAm translators do for a living.
What Sports Do You Play In Spanish
You have to polish the text until it’s free from idiomatic expressions and local uses of certain words, and retain the tone, humour and flair of the source text at the same time. It’s challenging and it can be frustrating when the exact equivalent is perfect in two countries but means something entirely different in all the others. It’s all about balance between meaning, style and clarity for the whole Latin American audience.
Manuel, Mexico: In my opinion just by avoiding the “voseo” will render the translation more comprehensible for a larger audience in the case of Spanish. But, I see it more like making a version less Mexican, or Argentinian, in order to provide a more generic language rather than make it “neutral”. I think although all speakers share a base knowledge of a language, differences will exist at some point in one or more of its elements, syntax, lexical units, its tone or its attitude.
In conclusion…
The difference between Castilian Spanish and Latin American variants is a large one.
Don’t just assume that if you translate into a particular Spanish that this will suit all of the others. It’s been touched on a number of times by the respondents that they want to play their own language. It seems that if they don’t, then it creates a negative reaction, which is of course something you want to avoid. You want to connect with as many gamers as you can, you want players to spread the word and negative reviews will have an affect on sales.
You Play In Spanish
If you are looking at global domination then perhaps you need to take the time and make that investment to localize into multiple Spanish versions; versions that cover the markets most important to you.