Song facts

The Rain in Spain is a song from the musical My Fair Lady, an adaption of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

The song is a turning point in the plotline of the musical. Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering have been drilling Eliza Doolittle incessantly with speech exercises, trying to break her Cockney accent speech pattern. The key lyric in the song is "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain", which contains five words that a Cockney would pronounce with [æɪ] or [aɪ]– more like "eye" [aɪ] than the Received Pronunciation diphthong [eɪ]. With the three of them nearly exhausted, Eliza finally "gets it", and recites the sentence with all long-As.

Teaching tips

When it comes to the comprehension of the plot, with emphasis on How Professor Higgins changes Eliza’s accent into a standard accent, teacher can use the MV as a supplement to help them understand. What’s more, at the end of the class, the teacher can present this MV as an example to show the tongue twister, such as “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”, "In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen", and "How kind of you to let me come". And then, after presenting it, the teacher can invite some students to have a try to let student feel the charm of English language and accent, which helps them comprehend the reading play.

    M8U4-Pygmalion-The Rain in Spain.pptx