The English Tongue Twister

A tongue twister is a combination of words designed to be hard to pronounce. The individual words themselves are usually quite commonplace, and easy to pronounce, but, combined as a set of words, they are surprisingly difficult to say.

Public speakers use tongue twisters for pronunciation, as they are very helpful in increasing verbal agility and improving diction. I remember reciting tongue twisters as a child, in elocution lessons, and they are used in speech training in public speaking for adults, such as actors, barristers and anyone who has to give company presentations.

 Funny tongue twisters are a source of great amusement for children and adults alike. Usually one person puts out a challenge to say the tongue twister as quickly as possible and repeat it several times. Each person does this in turn, usually until at least one of them can get it right. The results are often very funny.

 Tongue twisters are very useful for people learning English as a second language (ESL students), as it helps them to get their tongues round familiar and unfamiliar words.

The tongue finds it quite difficult to move quickly between the sounds “s”, “sh” and “th”. This tongue twister is in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most difficult tongue twister:

1. The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick

These ones are slightly easier:

2.She sells sea shells on the sea shore

and

3. Does this shop stock shot silk socks with spots?

The English “R” is a difficult letter to pronounce – even English people find it difficult, and some English people never do master it. Instead of saying “Rabbit”, they will pronounce it “Vabbit” or “Wabbit”. The Scots never even try – they pronounce “R” gutturally, like most continental languages, whereas the English “R” is actually pronounced at the front of the mouth, not in the throat. Some English people pronounce “R” by rolling their tongues slightly, but usually it is pronounced by using the lips rather than the tongue.Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran the rural

4. Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascals ran the rural races

Take the word “pain” – there are various regional differences in the way people pronounce it, from “pen” to “pine” and various intermediate sounds, but if you wish to speak English without a regional accent, you would pronounce it as in “pay” – “payn”.

5. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain

You may recall that this phrase was adopted into a song of that title in the musical and film “My Fair Lady”, but, as a tongue twister, it was in use long before that.

6. Red leather, yellow leather, red leather yellow leather

7. The leith police dismisseth us

8. 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?

You'd better say this one very slowly and carefully, and not in front of anyone with a delicate sensibility:

9. I'm not the pheasant plucker,

I'm the pheasant plucker's mate

I'm only plucking pheasants

'Cause the pheasant plucker's late.

A protrusion is something which sticks out - it could be nail heads, or, as in the case of the monster on the right, pointed scales.

Are you frightened????

10. A preponderance of protrusions on a prehistoric man

(See this Aztec design on T-shirts and mugs at my Zazzle Shop Glorious Confusion)