‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ in Spanish

Popular carol derived from Latin

Christmas sand sculpture from Canary Islands, Spain
Sand sculpture from the Canary Islands, Spain.

El Collecionista de Instantes / Creative Commons.

One of the oldest Christmas carols still sung is often known by its Latin title, Adeste fideles, in Spanish. Here is one popular version of the song with an English translation and vocabulary guide.

Venid, adoremos

Venid, adoremos, con alegre canto;
venid al pueblito de Belén.
Hoy ha nacido el Rey del los ángeles.
Venid y adoremos, venid y adoremos,
venid y adoremos a Cristo Jesús.

Cantadle loores, coros celestiales;
resuene el eco angelical.
Gloria cantemos al Dios del cielo.
Venid y adoremos, venid y adoremos,
venid y adoremos a Cristo Jesús.

Señor, nos gozamos en tu nacimiento;
oh Cristo, a ti la gloria será.
Ya en la carne, Verbo del Padre.
Venid y adoremos, venid y adoremos,
venid y adoremos a Cristo Jesus.

Translation of Venid, adoremos

Come, let's us worship with a happy song;
come to the little town of Bethlehem.
Today the King of the angels has been born.
Come and worship, come and worship,
Come and worship Christ Jesus.

Sing him praises, heavenly choirs;
may the angelical echo sound.
Let us sing glory to the God of heaven.
Come and worship, come and worship,
come and worship Christ Jesus.

Lord, we rejoice in your birth;
O Christ, the glory will be yours.
Now in the flesh, Word of the Father.
Come and worship, come and worship,
come and worship Christ Jesus.

Vocabulary and Grammar Notes

Venid: If you're familiar with only Latin American Spanish, you might not know this verb form of venir well. The -id is the ending for a command that goes with vosotros, so venid means "you (plural) come" or simply "come." In Spain, this is the familiar or informal form, meaning it is the form that would typically be used with friends, family members, or children.

Canto: Although this word, meaning "song" or "the act of singing," isn't particularly common, you should be able to guess its meaning if you know that the verb cantar means "to sing."

Coros, eco: Both of these words have English cognates ("choir" and "echo," respectively) where the c of Spanish is the "ch" in English, although the sounds of both are the hard "c." The sound of c and "ch" in in these words comes from the chi or χ of Greek. Among the many other word pairs like these are cronología/chronology and caos/chaos. 

Pueblito: This is a diminutive form of pueblo, meaning (in this context) "town" or "village." You may have noticed that in the translation of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" that the form pueblecito is used. There is no difference in meaning. Diminutive endings can sometimes be applied freely; here pueblito presumably was used because it fit the rhythm of the song.

Belén: This is the Spanish name for Bethlehem. It isn't unusual for names of cities, particularly those well-known centuries ago, to have different names in different languages. Interestingly, in Spanish the word belén (not capitalized) has come to refer to a nativity scene or a crib. It also has a colloquial use referring to confusion or a confusing problem, possibly referring to the Day of the Holy Innocents.

Ha nacido: This is the past perfect tense of nacer, which means "to be born."

Cantadle: This is the plural familiar command form of cantar (cantad), the same as venid explained above, and le is a pronoun meaning "him." "Cantadle loores, coros celestiales" means "sing him praises, heavenly choirs."

Resuene: This is a conjugated form of the verb resonar, "to resound" or "to echo." Resonar and sonar (to sound), from which is derived, are stem-changing verbs, in which the stem changes when it is stressed.

Loor: This is an uncommon word meaning "praise." It is seldom used in everyday speech, having mostly liturgical use.

Cielo: Although cielo here refers to heaven, the word can also refer to the sky just as can the English "heavens."

Señor: In everyday use, señor is used as a man's courtesy title, the same as "Mr." Unlike the English word "Mr.," the Spanish señor can also mean "lord." In Christianity, it becomes a way of referring to Jesus.

Nos gozamos: This is an example of a reflexive verb usage. By itself, the verb gozar would typically mean "to have joy" or something similar. In the reflexive form, gozarse typically would be translated as "rejoice."

Nacimiento: The suffix -miento offers one way of transforming a verb into a noun. Nacimiento comes from nacer.

Carne: In everyday use, this word typically means "meat." In liturgical use, it refers to a person's bodily nature.

Verbo del Padre: As you might guess, the most common meaning of verbo is "verb." Here, verbo is an allusion to the Gospel of John, where Jesus is referred to as "the Word" (logos in the original Greek). The traditional Spanish translation of the Bible, the Reina-Valera, uses the word Verbo rather than Palabra in translating John 1:1 from Greek.

Alternative Spanish Version

The version of Adeste fideles here isn't the only one in use. Here is the first verse of another common version along with its translation to English.

Acudan, fieles, alegres, triunfantes,
vengan, vengan a Belén,
Vean al recién nacido, el Rey de los ángeles.
Vengan, adoremos, vengan, adoremos
vengan, adoremos al Señor.

Come, faithful, happy, triumphant,
come, come to Bethlehem.
See the newborn, the King of the angels.
Come, adore, come, adore
come, adore the Lord.

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Erichsen, Gerald. "‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ in Spanish." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/venid-adoremos-3079481. Erichsen, Gerald. (2020, August 27). ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ in Spanish. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/venid-adoremos-3079481 Erichsen, Gerald. "‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ in Spanish." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/venid-adoremos-3079481 (accessed March 29, 2024).