Pasapalabra is a Spanish television game show, adapted from the British format The Alphabet Game. The title is a portmanteau of the Spanish verb pasar, "pass", and palabra, literally "word".
Gameplay
In each episode, two contestants team with celebrities (usually, one male and one female celebrity per team) to play various games. A team's correct responses in these games score seconds, extending their contestant's time limit in the final game, known as or .
There are four rounds of gameplay prior to the . All of them begin with the female celebrity, who sits to the contestant's right.
One of Four ()
In this round, players are given four options to choose from, then asked a series of questions, usually built around a theme (e.g. musicians, actors, countries, animals, etc.). A correct answer scores two seconds and removes that option from the board, which is then replaced by a new one; therefore, there are always four options for each question. An incorrect answer removes the correct one from the board and play passes to the next player on the team; players cannot pass without a guess. The players must answer as many questions as they can in 75 seconds.
Music Round ()
Players go head-to-head against their opposite on the other team to identify a popular song; the two female celebrity guests go first, followed by the two contestants, and finally the two male celebrity guests. The host reveals the year in which the song was first released (though in some cases, they listen to a cover version, in which case the host will tell them the year in which the cover was released); a short snippet of the song is then played, and if the player can identify it correctly, they earn the contestant five seconds. A player may buzz in at any time after the music begins, and buzzing in does not stop the music; therefore, players will usually try to buzz in immediately when the music starts (though buzzing in too soon, before the music actually starts, results in a lost turn).
If neither player can guess the song, the host then reads a line from the lyrics (which are usually in Spanish or English, though occasionally in Italian or French); identifying the song from this earns four seconds. If not, another snippet is played, worth three seconds.
For two seconds, several options are possible: either the host reads the title with the words out of order; conveys the title using synonyms for the actual words; or, if the title is in a language other than Spanish, reads a translation of the title into Spanish, which the players must translate correctly.
If the players still do not know the song, a final snippet of music is played, worth one second; if neither knows by the end of this round, no seconds are scored, and play advances to the next pair.
The songs are generally popular songs from music history, though sometimes they are themes from film or TV series, or children's songs. In these cases, this fact is revealed at the beginning, rather than the year of the song.
Word search ()
Players are presented with a five-by-five grid of letters and given a theme; they must then find three words related to that theme within the grid. The words to find range from two to five letters in length. For every complete grid, contestants earn five seconds.
An incorrect answer passes to the next player (or, if the player voluntarily passes). After five passes and/or incorrect answers, the grid is revealed and a new one replaces it. There are a maximum of eight grids per round, so a contestant can earn up to 40 seconds, making this potentially the most valuable round in the game.
Where are they? ()
Players are shown a grid of nine words, all revolving around a theme. They are only shown the words for a few seconds and must try to remember as many as possible, before the grid is replaced by numbers. The clock then starts at 75 seconds, and the host reads the words on the grid in random order; players must state which number the word is behind. Correct answers reveal the word and the host reads the next; incorrect answers reset the grid and the words are hidden again.
If a player correctly finds all nine words in a single play, the contestant locks in 10 seconds. If both teams find all the words on their respective grids, each contestant earns 10 seconds; if only one team does so, that contestant earns 20 seconds. If neither team finds all nine words, the team who found the most earns 5 seconds; if there is a tie, each earns 5 seconds.
Final round ()