Circumlocution phrases Spanish

Our goal is to keep our students as much as possible in the target language, and these phrases are just the help they need! When learning a foreign language it's hard to know every word; that's why it's important to teach students how to talk around words they don't.

Copy this handout in a different color and ask students to put it in the front of their binder so they can refer to it when needed. OR print this paper, enlarge it and put it on your wall.

In order for my students to learn how to use circumlocution, a super valuable skill, we play games where I describe items in Spanish and they guess in English. In a level one class , I introduce different phrases as I introduce different concepts. For example when teaching school supplies, I teach them "es una cosa que se usa para ..." I describe several school supplies first in Spanish and have students guess them in English. For example, es una cosa que se usa para escribir. Puede ser rojo, negro o azul (una pluma) I teach these gradually as I introduce different concepts (food, adjectives, animals, etc.). In a level II class, I ask the students to write down words on a sheet of paper that they want to learn in Spanish. When we have five minutes of class left on certain days, we play "No sé como se dice" where I describe items and they guess in English what I am describing.