The Tongue Twisters THREAD

[linguaholic]

Share your favorite Tongue Twisters

Tongue Twisters are a funny thing, right? I would like to share a few with all of you guys. When posting your favourite tongue twisters, please indicate the language in brackets, like I did for [swiss German]

Let's start with some Swiss German Tongue Twisters:

[sWISS GERMAN TONGUE TWISTERS]

"Dr Papscht het ds Spiez ds Späckbschteck ds spät bschteut."

"Dr Whisky-Mixer mixet Whisky, Dr Whisky-Mixer mixet Whisky"

"Lütis Lüti lütet lüter aus lütis Lüti lütet"

[angie51]

I have a couple of tongue twisters which I still cannot pronounce properly when spoken quickly. See how you manage.

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop

where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers, Peter Piper picked?

How did you manage?.

[angie51]

I just recalled another "tongue twister"    ( English )

"If two witches where watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?"

[hoodoowytch]

Flip, flap, flop. Flop, flap, flip. Flipper, flapper, flopper, flopper, flapper, flipper!

Annoying, I know. 

[Linguetronix]

Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry.

Simple, yet tough!

[Peninha]

O rato roeu a rolha da garrafa do rei da Russia. (Portuguese Portugal)

Hard one for kids!

[Miya]

Japanese (早口言葉)

Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi.

李も桃も桃のうち。

Both plums and peaches are members of the peach family.

Aka-maki-gami, ki-maki-gami, ao-maki-gami

赤巻紙、黄巻紙、青巻紙

Red scroll, yellow scroll and blue scroll

Nama-mugi nama-gome nama-tamago

生麦生米生卵

Raw wheat, raw rice, raw eggs

[wander_n_wonder]

I have a couple of tongue twisters which I still cannot pronounce properly when spoken quickly. See how you manage.

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop

where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers, Peter Piper picked?

How did you manage?.

I can do this pretty well, as these two are probably the most common ones that my English speech teacher taught us before.  It was very difficult at the beginning but if you have to do it often in your class, you will end up saying it with ease.  I think tongue twisters are really effective in practicing proper pronunciation.

[Miya]

Cantonese 急口令

一蚊一隻龜, 七蚊一隻雞,

佢話龜貴過雞, 我話雞貴過龜,

咁究竟龜貴過雞定係雞貴過龜.

My translation:

$1 for 1 turtle, $7 for 1 chicken,

He says turtle is more expensive than chicken, I say chicken is more expensive turtle.

So is turtle more expensive than chicken or is chicken more expensive than turtle.

嗰個哥哥高過嗰個哥哥。

That older brother is taller than that older brother

[Yorfs]

Mandatory longest usable finnish word in existance:

"järjestelmällistämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän".

There are a few longer ones, but the other one I know is somehow related to the jet engines of a fighter plane or some other mechanical terminology, so that doesn't really count

Also: "Kas vain!" sanoi kasvain, ja kasvoi vain. Vain kasvain voi kasvaa noin vain."

[Lasonax]

Haha, what a funny thread.

Swedish:

1. Flyg, fula fluga, flyg och den fula flugan flög.

2. Sju sjuksköterskor skötte sju sjösjuka sjömän på skeppet Shanghai.

3. Packa pappas kappsäck.

English:

She sells seashells by the seashore,

The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure.

So if she sells seashells on the seashore,

Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? It chuck all the wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

[HeyImLeeroy]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a tongue twister but the English pronunciation poem 'The Chaos' by G. Nolst Trenite has certainly given me a hard time trying to get every pronunciation right! Hahahaha it also made me realize what a crazy, diverse and amazing language english is :grin: :

Warning: the poem below is VERY long

The Chaos by G. Nolst Trenite

Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,

Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,

And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,

Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.

Though the differences seem little,

We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.

Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Mint, pint, senate and sedate;

Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,

People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the differences, moreover,

Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice, but police and lice;

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,

Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, Korea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won’t it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough,

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!

[Rosyrain]

Here is my favorite...in English:

Betty Brown made some butter, but the butter was to bitter.

To make the bitter butter better, Betty better butter in the bitter butter to make the bitter butter better!

[whnuien]

One of my favourite in Malay language goes:

Ku kikis kikis kuku kakiku, kakak ku kata kuku kaki ku kaku

(I scrapped my toenails because my sister said they are ugly)

[Peninha]

I recall when I was learning English that my teacher gave me this one that always gave me problems!

She sells seashells by the seashore.

The shells she sells are surely seashells.

So if she sells shells on the seashore,

I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

[Kate]

This one is probably the shortest tongue twister we'll see in this thread, but it's one of the hardest I have come across.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone be able to say it ten times fast without having his or her tongue twisted totally out of shape.  :amazed:

The tongue twister is:  Unique New York

If anyone can say that 10 times fast without tripping over your tongue while hearing "you nork" come out of your mouth, please share the secret with the rest of us!

[FosterTXT]

I love tongue twisters. They are so fun. I have a Spanish tongue twister that I would like to share with you guys.

Tengo un tio cajonero

que hace cajas y calajas

y cajitas y cajones.

Y al tirar de los cordones

salen cajas y calajas

y cajitas y cajones.

[Yorfs]

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? It chuck all the wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Childhood traumas. On our 6th grade english class, our teacher made us repeat that sentence out loud one by one. Nobody got it right, and she didn't reveal until the very end that it was a tongue twister, not an actual phrase we'd ever need.

[hoodoowytch]

Childhood traumas. On our 6th grade english class, our teacher made us repeat that sentence out loud one by one. Nobody got it right, and she didn't reveal until the very end that it was a tongue twister, not an actual phrase we'd ever need.

Teachers can be brutal like that sometimes. *snigger* I had a teacher that so hated the word "ain't" she would take a wooden ruler and rap whoever said "ain't" on the head rather smartly with it. It stung pretty good too.

That was in the 70s. Now it's considered child abuse and we have armed guards in schools across the country. Funny ol' world...ain't it? LOL

[diprod]

This is a Filipino one:

Minikaniko ni Monica ang Makina ni Monico.

Have fun!

[Yorfs]

Teachers can be brutal like that sometimes. *snigger* I had a teacher that so hated the word "ain't" she would take a wooden ruler and rap whoever said "ain't" on the head rather smartly with it. It stung pretty good too.

That was in the 70s. Now it's considered child abuse and we have armed guards in schools across the country. Funny ol' world...ain't it? LOL

Hah, first I read that you said "now we have arm guards", as in to protect your fingers from the ruler. Now that'd be something 

[Rosa]

One tongue twister I can recall now is one that I always had fun saying as a kid.

-Around the rough and rugged road the ragged rascal runs.

[foodietr]

Betty Botter bought some butter;

"But," said she, "this butter's bitter!

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But a bit of better butter

Will but make my batter better."

Then she bought a bit of butter

Better than the bitter butter,

Made her bitter batter better.

So ´twas better Betty Botter

bought a bit of better butter.

[Pink Glitter]

Mr. See owned a saw.

And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.

Now, See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw

Before Soar saw See,

Which made Soar sore.

Had Soar seen See's saw

Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,

See's saw would not have sawed

Soar's seesaw.

So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.

But it was sad to see Soar so sore

just because See's saw sawed

Soar's seesaw.

[g2narat]

I have another Filipino one. This one is pretty tough: Usong usong isang isang salu-salong nagsisi-usyosohan ang mga aso sa asosasyon sa Ascuzena.

It roughly translates to: The dogs are busy sharing and chatting at a dog association in Ascuzena.  :grin: