Spanish Words — Hear a Spanish Word, Tap the Picture (Kids’ Spanish Game)

About Spanish Words

Spanish Words is a no-ads, Spanish-listening game for children aged 4 to 6. A Spanish flag sits at the top of the screen and a button plays a word in Spanish. Three pictures sit below. Your child taps the one that matches the word they heard. Right answer? Star! Wrong answer? Gentle wobble, try again.

Spanish Words is part of the Tadpole Games family. Where Fredle teaches English phonics and Flagle teaches world geography, Spanish Words introduces Spanish vocabulary — one everyday word at a time, ear first. It’s designed to be played before a child can read.

Who Spanish Words is for

Reception (age 4–5) — the right age to start hearing another language. Children at this age learn pronunciation effortlessly. No reading required.
Year 1 (age 5–6) — building world knowledge alongside the early-years curriculum. Learning that “apple” in Spain is “manzana”.
Bilingual or trilingual families wanting a fun, low-pressure way to expose their kids to Spanish.
Parents who want screen-time that quietly teaches something — Spanish vocabulary, the sounds of Spanish, the Spanish flag — without feeling like a worksheet.

How it works

The Spanish flag sits at the top of the screen.
Your child taps the flag (or the play button) to hear a word spoken aloud in Spanish — for example, “manzana”.
Three pictures appear below. Your child taps the one that matches: “manzana” → the apple.
Right answer? The picture flashes green, a star is added, and a new round starts.
Wrong answer? The picture wobbles red, the word stays put, and they can try again. Endless turns — no losing.

Why hearing comes first

Children under seven pick up the sounds of a language almost effortlessly — far more easily than older learners can. They don’t need to read “manzana” to remember it; they just need to hear it a few times, attached to a picture of an apple. Spanish Words is built around that fact. There are no words written on the playing cells. The question is a sound, the answer is a picture. It’s a true pre-reading game.

How to play with your child

Say the word along with the game. “Manzana — that means apple in Spanish.” Repetition is the lesson.
Mention the country. “That’s the Spanish flag — Spain. People in Spain say ‘manzana’ for ‘apple’.”
Try to guess before pressing play. “What do you think dog might sound like in Spanish?” Then press the button and find out together.
Five minutes a day. Short and warm beats long and earnest. The stars only go up.

Frequently asked questions

Can my child fail?

No. There is no timer, no lives, and no fail state. A wrong tap just gives a gentle wobble — the word stays in place and they can try again. Stars only go up.

Which words does Spanish Words cover?

Around forty everyday words a young child already knows in English — apple, dog, cat, sun, moon, fish, house, car, banana, tree, flower and so on — spread across five difficulty tiers. New words unlock as your child earns stars.

Where does the voice come from?

Every word in Spanish Words has a short clip of real native-speaker Spanish recorded for it — not a robotic text-to-speech voice. So the “manzana” your child hears really is how a Spanish speaker says it. (If the recording can’t play for any reason — an unusual browser, no network — the device’s built-in Spanish voice steps in as a fallback.)

Where do the pictures come from?

Each picture is a real photograph of the thing — a real apple for “manzana”, a real dog for “perro”, a real beach for “playa”. Photographs help children attach the new Spanish word to the actual thing, not to a cartoon abstraction.