Elefantes

Elefantes is a popular Hispanic children's song similar to the American song "99 Bottles of Beer".

Lyrics

The song tells about an elephant who decides to swing upon a spiderweb. When the elephant notices the spiderweb can stand his weight, he decides to bring another elephant to do the same. The repetitive song lyrics keep adding more and more elephants without the spiderweb ever collapsing. The song ends when the singer or singers grow tired and quit.

For the lyrics to the song Elefantes, see the Wikisource article

In Education

Many students in Spanish I and II classes learn this song to help with their vocabulary and grammar.
*In Spanish I, the counting part of the song may help.
*In the case of the words "veía", "araña", and "resistía", the tildes (accent marks) help the students with their accents and how to pronounce the words when they are present.
*The verbs "ir" and "caber" are irregular in the preterite tense, so the teacher may tell the students to sing the song as if it happened last week.
*Many young ESL students, or even grown immigrants, learn the song to help with their English.

Cultural references

There is a popular commercial shown on Latin American television (primarily Telemundo) for the Ford Focus that shows some men dressed in elephant suits in the car singing the song. When they arrive at a party, they realize that the invitation said "elegante" and not elefante.

Music

This is the music set to the lyrics of "Elefantes".

ee also

*Nursery Rhyme
* [http://shepline.com/movement/ A Romanian Version of the song]

External links

*A website with an interactive lyrics section and music [http://www.juegosycanciones.com/elefantes/index.html English] [http://www.juegosycanciones.com/elefantes/ele.html Spanish]