
7 Spanish Board Games to Make Language Learning Fun
Looking for a way to make learning Spanish more fun? Then try Spanish language board games.
Spanish board games offer all the fun and excitement of your favorite English board games, but they have an added bonus: you’ll improve your Spanish skills!
With a diverse array of board games appropriate for any skill level, you’ll never struggle to find an entertaining and educational game to enjoy.
Contents
- 1. KLOO: Race to Madrid
- 2. ¡Dígame!
- 3. BINGO
- 4. Lotería Mexicana
- 5. Manzanas con Manzanas
- 6. Scrabble Spanish
- 7. Spanish Bananagrams
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. KLOO: Race to Madrid
This award-winning board game was designed specifically to help you learn Spanish, unlike some of the other games on this list.
The game takes the form of a race through Spain. You’ll go through major Spanish cities like Barcelona, Seville and Valencia on your way to your final destination: Madrid. To advance on your journey, you must use your playing cards to form sentences. If you form longer sentences, you’ll move more quickly. There are four different decks of cards with themes like “Eating & Drinking” to help you learn specific and useful vocabulary sets.
KLOO: Race to Madrid is appropriate for beginning through intermediate Spanish students. It’s a helpful tool to learn vocabulary and sentence construction, but you’ll also learn a little bit about Spanish geography and landmarks.
2. ¡Dígame!
While “¡Dígame!” (Tell me!) is technically a card game and not a board game, it’s a worthwhile option for any game fan. This award-winning game aims to immerse you in the Spanish language.
To win the game, you have to learn words and put the cards in the “Entiendo” (I understand) pile. To do this, you must be able to recognize the phrase based on a demonstration (sort of like charades) or Spanish language hints, which you can access on your phone or online.
¡Dígame! is appropriate for beginning through intermediate Spanish students. It helps players memorize basic words and phrases and see their meanings in context.
3. BINGO
BINGO offers Spanish learning fun for groups of 3 to 36 people. It’s best for beginner level Spanish students.
The game works a lot like regular bingo. A caller draws a card and calls out the word on the card. Then, players look to see if that word (accompanied by an associated image) appears on their cards. If so, they mark it with a chip. Once a player has a line of chips, they win. This is an easy way to learn basic vocabulary through repeated exposure.
4. Lotería Mexicana
Lotería Mexicana (Mexican Lottery) is great for a group because it can accommodate up to 20 players at once.
The game of lotería (lottery) is very similar to bingo. Each player gets a board with pictures on it. When the caller draws a card from the deck, they traditionally read a riddle or improvise a description. When a player matches a word, they put a chip on it until they get four chips in a row.
This set will help beginner Spanish students learn basic vocabulary words. It’s also a good way to practice listening skills. Additionally, if you’re the caller, it’s a great way to practice your speaking skills.
5. Manzanas con Manzanas
Manzanas con Manzanas (Apples with Apples) is the Spanish-language version of the popular game Apples to Apples. While it’s a little pricier than the other games on this list, it’s a great option for intermediate and advanced Spanish students.
Each player is dealt a hand. Then a “judge” plays a card, and each player plays a card that seems to be described by the judge’s card. The judge chooses his/her favorite, and the person whose card was chosen wins that hand. Then, the judge rotates.
Since Manzanas con Manzanas uses more reasoning skills than many games, this is a good way to engage multiple areas of your brain simultaneously. Reasoning in Spanish will drastically improve your fluency and ability to think in Spanish.
Note: This set focuses predominantly on Mexican Spanish, so not all words and phrases will be applicable to other regions. However, you can remove overly specific Mexican Spanish cards to make the set more general.
6. Scrabble Spanish
Get your favorite dictionary app handy! You can take home the Spanish version of the familiar classic, Scrabble.
In Scrabble, you use tiles to form words on a game board. Each letter has a value, and certain squares on the board have bonuses. Whoever scores the most points wins.
But why buy the Spanish version when you could just use the English version? Two reasons: Spanish letters and point values. The set offers Spanish letters like “ll” and “rr” that aren’t in the English version. Additionally, the point values on tiles are adjusted to account for their frequency of use in the Spanish language.
Playing Scrabble in Spanish is terrific for all levels of language learners. Beginning students can form simple words. Scrabble Spanish is also a helpful way to familiarize yourself with the Spanish alphabet. More advanced students can use a wider array of words (and score more points). Regardless of your level, it’s a great way to practice your spelling and word recognition.
Pro tip: If you’re playing Scrabble Spanish and having trouble coming up with words, cognates are your friends.
7. Spanish Bananagrams
You can get the Spanish version of the popular game Bananagrams and play in the same way that you know and love.
In Bananagrams, players attempt to spell words quickly by building on words that are already in place. It’s a lot like Scrabble, but there’s no board and no complicated scoring—just spell, and spell quickly!
Like the Spanish version of Scrabble, this Spanish version of Bananagrams has tiles that are adjusted to include common Spanish letters like rr, ll, ch and ñ.
Bananagrams is appropriate for all levels of learners and will help players practice their spelling.
With these great seven Spanish board games in your learning arsenal, you’ll never get bored while learning Spanish again!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)