The Tongue Twisters THREAD

[eppie]

This is a Filipino one:

Minikaniko ni Monica ang Makina ni Monico.

Have fun!

Yes, I remember this one but I believe this tongue twister goes like this:

"Minikaniko ni Monico ang makina ng Minica ni Monica."

Anyway, here's another one also in Filipino:

"Ang relo in Leroy ay Rolex."  Quite short but it's very "tongue-twistery".  :grin:

[pcgamer]

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.

What is really up with this twister? I can't seem to do it properly. Has anyone else managed to pronounce it properly?

[levitator]

Hello everyone!

I see the Polish language is not represented, so here is one for you:

W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie.

"In Szczebrzeszyn, a beetle makes noise among the reeds"

[daisyt]

Ahhh tongue twisters

Here's a couple

' Wunwun was a racehorse,Tutu was one, too. Wunwun won one race, and Tutu won one too. '

' A pessimistic pest exists amidst us. '

' Ken Dodd's dad's dog's dead. '

[littlefinn]

Tongue twisters are actually great for developing pronunciation (which must be why some teachers force you to do them).

These are all Finnish, with the English translations in parenthesis. I have these saved for practice, but I can't even say half of these slowly yet!

Yksikseskös yskiskelet, itsekseskös itkeskelet, yksikseskös istuskelet, itkeskellen yskiskelet.

(Are you coughing alone, crying by yourself, sitting alone, coughing while crying?)

Vesihiisi sihisi hississä.

(The water goblin hissed in an elevator.)

Vasta vastaa vasta vastaavasta vastavastaavasta.

(The bath whisk answers only for the respective person responsible for the bath whisk.)

Keksijä Keksi keksi keksin. Keksittyään keksin keksijä Keksi keksi keksin keksityksi

(Inventor Cookie invented the cookie. After inventor Cookie had invented the cookie, he invented that the cookie was invented.)

Appilan pappilan apupapin papupata.

(The bean casserole of the deacon of the rectory of Appila.)

Piukka paikka, peikko: paukku puikko poikki.

(It’s a tough situation, troll: the bang stick is broken.)

Kokoa kokoon koko kokko! Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko.

(Gather up a full bonfire! A full bonfire? A full bonfire.)

[levitator]

Vasta vastaa vasta vastaavasta vastavastaavasta.

(The bath whisk answers only for the respective person responsible for the bath whisk.)

I love this one, since it looks like the same word repeated over and over! Would you be able to dissect it to show which part means what? Of course, if it is too much hassle, do not bother

[daisyt]

A couple more:

The very wary warrior veered violently where the violets wound very wickedly. 

On a lazy laser raiser lies a laser ray eraser.

Chop shops stock chops.

Try saying the last one as fast as you can haha

[LazyLearner]

Portuguese ones:

"O rato roeu a roupa do Rei de Roma, a rainha de raiva roeu o resto"

(The rat gnawed up the King of Rome’s clothes, the queen in anger gnawed the rest)

"Três pratos de trigo para três tigres tristes."

(Three plates of wheat for three sad tigers.)

"O peito do pé do Pedro é preto, e quem disser que o peito do pé do Pedro não é preto, tem o peito do pé mais preto que o peito do pé do Pedro."

(The top of Pedro's foot is black, and anyone who says that the top of Pedro's foot isn't black, has the top of the foot blacker than the top of Pedro's foot)

The last one is hard to say and hard to translate! I think I got it right, but it's a though one.

[littlefinn]

Vasta vastaa vasta vastaavasta vastavastaavasta.

(The bath whisk answers only for the respective person responsible for the bath whisk.)

I love this one, since it looks like the same word repeated over and over! Would you be able to dissect it to show which part means what? Of course, if it is too much hassle, do not bother

Haha goodness, I wish I could! I don't know Finnish nearly well enough yet, although I'm curious as well.

I do know how most of these are possible, though. (Here's my not-much-grammar-knowledge explanation:) Most of the time Finns just kind of don't use extra words. So instead of asking "Could I have coffee?" you say "Kahvi" (in a polite tone). So a lot of the words in these tongue twisters probably imply the actions needed. Many finnish words are combinations of other words. In fact, people have theorized that Finnish is an "infinite language", because it is set up so you can easily make new words. So you can combine fluffy and dog to mean a fluffy dog or a dog that seems fluffy, and so on.

Although I'm not sure how 'bath whisk' (which is a bundle of branches, by the way), 'person', and the concept of responsibility all got tied in

[Firelily99]

Awesome posts, what a wonderful time I had reading them and laughing myself silly!  I had to leave the library because I was getting the dreaded shhhh! from the librarian.  Thanks to all who shared them!

[daisyt]

I slit the sheet,

The sheet I slit

and on the slitted sheet I sit.

A canner can can anything that he can,

But a canner can't can a can, can he?

Although I love the example of a sentence with 5 'had', one right after another. English can be really weird.

[Cielosur]

Here are two tongue twisters in Spanish that I remember from my childhood. 

Cuando cuentas

cuentos nunca

cuentas cuantos

cuentos cuentas

Pablito clavó un clavito,

¿qué clavito clavó Pablito?,

el clavito que Pablito clavó,

era el clavito de Pablito.

[reirei]

This is a Filipino one:

Minikaniko ni Monica ang Makina ni Monico.

Have fun!

The one you shared is kind of popular for its double meaning.

Let me share with you a much more wholesome version.

:grin:

[Filipino]

Minikaniko ni Monico ang makina ng Minica ni Monica.

[English Translation]

Monico is fixing the engine of Monica's Minica (a small model Honda from the 1970s).

[licklozay]

She sells seashells by the seashore is the only tongue twister that I can remember off by heart. I can say this once really slow, but if I tried to speed it up in any way my tongue gets really messed up.

[burtpovski]

This one is pretty easy, and a lot of people heard of it before, but here it goes:

She sells sea shells down by the sea shore.

It tries to trick your tongue with the "s" letters!

[levitator]

Haha goodness, I wish I could! I don't know Finnish nearly well enough yet, although I'm curious as well.

I do know how most of these are possible, though. (Here's my not-much-grammar-knowledge explanation:) Most of the time Finns just kind of don't use extra words. So instead of asking "Could I have coffee?" you say "Kahvi" (in a polite tone). So a lot of the words in these tongue twisters probably imply the actions needed. Many finnish words are combinations of other words. In fact, people have theorized that Finnish is an "infinite language", because it is set up so you can easily make new words. So you can combine fluffy and dog to mean a fluffy dog or a dog that seems fluffy, and so on.

Although I'm not sure how 'bath whisk' (which is a bundle of branches, by the way), 'person', and the concept of responsibility all got tied in

That's really informative, thanks! The ability to connect words to make new ones reminds me of German, where also such long, "infinite" words can be found

[levitator]

I just thought of another one!

Also making use of the polish language's ability to put several consonants next to each other:

Pocztmistrz z Tczewa, Rotmistrz z Czchowa.

"A postmaster from Tczew (town name), a chief-captain from Czchów (another town name)"

[Kate]

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. 

Oh yes!  That woodchuck thing had me so mad when I was a kid that I was determined to learn it and learn it right.  I worked on it for a while and I really did get it.  I've never forgotten either. 

I guess it was kind of nasty of me to turn around and laugh at kids who *couldn't* say it when I finally could, but... well childhood is tough!

[Kate]

' Wunwun was a racehorse,Tutu was one, too. Wunwun won one race, and Tutu won one too. '

' A pessimistic pest exists amidst us. '

' Ken Dodd's dad's dog's dead. '

I got through the first two of these without much of a problem, but that last one had my tongue getting wrapped around my eyeteeth until I couldn't see.  :grin:

[martindrox]

Moses supposes his toeses are roses,

but Moses supposes erroneously.

For Moses, he knowses his toeses aren't roses,

as Moses supposes his toeses to be.

I really like it and it's difficult to pronounce

[linguaholic]

Are you ready for some crazy Chinese Tongue Twister? Here we go :=)

施氏食獅史

石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。

氏時時適市視獅。

十時，適十獅適市。

是時，適施氏適市。

氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。

氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。

石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。

石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。

食時，始識是十獅，實十石獅屍。

試釋是事。

Shī Shì shí shī shǐ

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.

Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.

Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.

Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.

Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.

Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.

Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.

Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.

Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.

Shì shì shì shì.

[Sai]

Some Chinese tongue twisters:

化肥会挥发。

黑化肥发灰，灰化肥发黑。

黑化肥发灰会挥发，灰化肥挥发会发黑。

(Chemical fertilizer will volatilize.

Black chemical fertilizer looks grey, grey chemical fertilizer looks black.

Black chemical fertilizer looks grey and will volatilize, grey chemical fertilizer will volatilize and looks black.)

刘奶奶找牛奶奶买牛奶，

牛奶奶给刘奶奶拿牛奶，

刘奶奶说牛奶奶的牛奶不如柳奶奶的牛奶，

牛奶奶说柳奶奶的牛奶会流奶，

柳奶奶听见了大骂牛奶奶你的牛奶才会流奶，

柳奶奶和牛奶奶泼牛奶吓坏了刘奶奶，

大骂再也不买柳奶奶和牛奶奶的牛奶。

[Wavie]

Danish tongue twisters:

Bispens gibsgebis.

Stativ, stakit, kasket.

Fem flade flødeboler på et fladt flødebollefad.

Faroese tongue twisters:

Eitt, heitt, feitt, nýbakað byggbreyð.

[linguaholic]

Dear Wavie

thank you for joining www.linguaholic.com! You are most welcome  :grin: really happy to have someone from the Faroe Islands joining my forum! that's just amazing.

Moreover thank you for providing some Tongue Twisters in Dutch. Have never heard about these so far! Sadly I don't know how to speak Dutch, so I can't really imagine how they would sound like *.*

See you in the threads!

lingua

[GeraldH]

There's a German one that I've encountered, and I think it's directed at learners because it's said when one wants to say that they're finding German to be a difficult language. Here it is:

Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.

Then I've got a Russian one that I like. I can usually only remember the start, but I found the rest online. Enjoy

Ехал Грека через реку, видит Грека в реке рак. Сунул Грека руку в реку, рак за руку Греку цап!