Tongue Twisters are short rhymes or a collection of words that are hard to articulate. There are many different kinds of tongue twisters. Some are short and friends will often say to you, ‘says these words as many times as you can as fast as you can’. This often results in you saying something silly much to your friends’ amusement. The most famous examples of this are:

‘Red lorry, yellow lorry’

And…

‘A proper copper coffee pot’

Many of the tongue twisters that I remember trying to conquer as a child are still the most popular tongue twisters today. These are famous rhymes that are almost song like. They are slightly longer and are full of alliteration. Most of them make little sense but the verbal challenges amuse and confuse children for hours and are often seen as a fun game. The most well known tongue twisters are arguably…

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,
A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled Pepper,
Where’s the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

And…

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.

My favourite when I was young was a rhyme that began, ‘How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.’ How quickly can you say that?

Although normally associated with children, tongue twisters are often written for adults. They are usually written in a way that will produce more vulgar humour when the reader makes mistakes although pronounced correctly, they contain no offensive words. I have two examples of more ‘adult’ tongue twisters….just be careful who you try and say them around!

I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit;
and on the slitted sheet I sit.

And…

I’m not the fig plucker,
Nor the fig pluckers’ son,
But I’ll pluck figs
Till the fig plucker comes.

For those of you that managed to rapidly say these phrases without making rude mistakes, I applaud you. It is not very easy!

Tongue Twisters are linguistic games often written purely for amusement value however they serve as a good tool too. English tongue twisters can be used by students of the English language to improve their pronunciation and their accent so take the time to look up some fun tongue twisters or keep an eye on our facebook and twitter pages where tongue twisters are often posted.

Before I leave you to practice the tongue twisters I have already written in this blog entry, I wanted to tell you the tongue twister I have the most difficulty getting my mouth around. It is very short and more popular with kids yet I still struggle to this day (which is extremely frustrating) to correctly say….‘Many an anemone sees an enemy anemone.’

 

VOCABULARY
Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds next to each other in a sentence, e.g. the wild, wooly wildebeest.
Amusement: Something that entertains you, often funny. E.g. You read a book for your amusement.
Applaud: A way to praise and show you approve, usually done with clapping.
Arguably: Something that other people may disagree with but many think is true, not something based on fact e.g. Steven Spielberg is arguably the best director in the world.
Articulate: to speak clearly in a way that people will understand.
Conquer: to overcome somebody/something and win or be better, e.g. someone can conquer their fear of heights.
Frustrating: A feeling of annoyance, often when you wish to do something but can’t.
Linguistic: Word to describe something that relates to languages.
Offensive: An adjective to describe something that can cause displeasure, upset or possibly anger.
Vulgar: An adjective that describes something that is rude/crude and of bad moral taste.

 

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