A sentence or series of words that is hard to say correctly is called a tongue twister in English. Children love tongue twisters and challenge their friends to try to say them fast several times in row. For English learners, tongue twisters are a fun way to work on one or two sounds at a time to get the pronunciation just right. Start by saying the tongue twister slowly, then try to speed up. Once you can say a tongue twister through, try to say it twice or three times in a row for a bigger challenge.
| Tongue twister | Sounds/words emphasized | Difficulty (for a native speaker) |
|---|---|---|
| How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? | wood & chuck (means: throw) | Easy |
| Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? | p | Easy |
| Can you can a can as a canner can can a can? | can | Easy |
| Frivolously fanciful Fannie fried fresh fish furiously | f | Easy |
| To begin to toboggan first buy a toboggan, but don't buy too big a toboggan. Too big a toboggan is too big a toboggan to buy to begin to toboggan. | b & t | Easy |
| She saw Sharif's shoes on the sofa. But was she so sure those were Sharif's shoes she saw? | s & sh | Easy |
| Give papa a cup of proper coffe in a copper coffe cup. | c & p | Medium |
| Black background, brown background | b | Medium |
| Seventy-seven benevolent elephants | l & v | Medium |
| The chic Sikh's sixty-sixth sheep is sick | s & k | Medium |
| A loyal warrior will rarely worry why we rule. | l & r | Medium |
| A pessemistic pest exists amidst us. | s & st | Medium |
| Drew Dodd's dad's dog's dead. | d | Medium |
| Which witch switched the Swiss wristwatches? | w, s & ch | Hard |
| She sells seashells by the seashore. | s & sh | Hard |