Nueve naves nuevas navegan.
NUE-ve NA-ves NUE-vas na-VE-gan
Nine new ships are sailing.
🔊 Listen & Practice
Start with slow speed to master pronunciation, then gradually increase to challenge yourself.
🎨 Visualization
Nine new ships sailing the seas. The trick is making the 'v' and 'n' sounds clear and consistent!
🎯 Pronunciation Focus
The Spanish 'b'/'v' Sound
/b/In Spanish, the letters 'b' and 'v' make the exact same sound. It's a soft sound made by lightly pressing your lips together, without the strong puff of air you use for an English 'b'. It's much softer than the English 'v' from 'very'.
The Clear 'n' Sound
/n/Focus on making a crisp, clear 'n' sound each time. The tip of your tongue should firmly touch the ridge behind your top teeth to produce the sound.
📝 Practice Breakdown
Start here. Notice how your mouth moves from the 'n' sound to the soft 'v' sound. Your lips should just gently touch for the 'v'.
Now for the final word. Keep that 'v' sound soft and consistent with the others. The 'g' sound is also soft, like the 'g' in 'go'.
Key Words in This Tongue Twister:
📚 Background
This is a classic and simple 'trabalenguas' that's perfect for beginners. Its main purpose is to train your mouth to produce the Spanish 'b'/'v' sound correctly and to practice the rhythm of repeated 'n' and 'v' sounds.
❌ Common Pitfalls
Pronouncing 'v' like in English
Mistake: "Using the English 'v' sound (from a word like 'victory'), where your top teeth touch your bottom lip."
Correction: Forget the English 'v'! In Spanish, for both 'b' and 'v', just bring your lips together gently, as if you were about to say 'b', but much softer. There's no teeth-on-lip action.
Mumbling the Sounds
Mistake: "Because the words sound similar, it's easy to rush and have them blend together into a mumble."
Correction: Slow down at first. Focus on making each word distinct. Say 'NUE-ve', then pause. Then 'NA-ves'. This helps build muscle memory before you try to speed up.
🌎 Where It's Used
General Spanish
This is a fundamental pronunciation exercise used across the entire Spanish-speaking world to help learners master the identical sound of 'b' and 'v'.
🔗 Related Tongue Twisters
The Fleet Challenge
Can you say it five times in a row without accidentally using the English 'v' sound? Try to get a little faster each time while keeping the sounds consistent.
🏷️ Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
So 'b' and 'v' really sound exactly the same in Spanish?
Yes, in modern standard Spanish, they are pronounced identically. The difference is only in the spelling, which is determined by the word's origin (etymology). Don't let the different letters trick you; it's the same sound!
Why is this tongue twister good for beginners?
It's short, has a simple rhythm, and targets one of the most common points of confusion for English speakers: the 'b'/'v' sound. Mastering this simple phrase helps build a strong foundation for clear Spanish pronunciation.