Apr 18 2008
Tongue Twisters
Tongue-twister:
“A sequence of words, often alliterative, difficult to articulate quickly.” (Oxford English Dictionary)
Shibboleth:
“A word or phrase used as a test for detecting foreigners, or persons from another district, by their pronunciation.” (OED)
Battologism:
A phrase or sentence built by (tiresome) repetition of the same words or sounds.
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 can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
Send toast to ten tense stout saints’ ten tall tents.
Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.
Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
Seth at Sainsbury’s sells thick socks.
Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock
In a pestilential prison with a life long lock
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.
Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut-Butter, ’tis the peanut-butter picky people pick.
If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?
Luke’s duck likes lakes. Luke Luck licks lakes. Luke’s duck licks lakes. Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes. Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes. —– from Dr. Seuss’ Fox in Socks
Santa’s Short Suit Shrunk
Did Dick Pickens prick his pinkie pickling cheap cling peaches in an inch of Pinch or framing his famed French finch photos?
A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose!
How many cookies could a good cook cook If a good cook could cook cookies? A good cook could cook as much cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies.
How much ground would a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hog ground? A groundhog would hog all the ground he could hog, if a groundhog could hog ground.
How much pot, could a pot roast roast, if a pot roast could roast pot.
How much wood could Chuck Woods’ woodchuck chuck, if Chuck Woods’ woodchuck could and would chuck wood? If Chuck Woods’ woodchuck could and would chuck wood, how much wood could and would Chuck Woods’ woodchuck chuck? Chuck Woods’ woodchuck would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as any woodchuck would, if a woodchuck could and would chuck wood.
Pete’s pa pete poked to the pea patch to pick a peck of peas for the poor pink pig in the pine hole pig-pen.
Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees’ cheese freeze.
That’s what made these three free fleas sneeze.
Green glass globes glow greenly.
How many berries could a bare berry carry,
if a bare berry could carry berries?
Well they can’t carry berries
(which could make you very wary)
but a bare berry carried is more scary!
Rhys watched Ross switch his Irish wristwatch for a Swiss wristwatch.
He threw three free throws.
/short i / vs. / long e/
How many sheets could a sheet slitter slit if a sheet slitter could slit sheets?
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit.
Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheep cheddar cheese.
Yally Bally had a jolly golliwog. Feeling folly, Yally Bally Bought his jolly golli’ a dollie made of holly! The golli’, feeling jolly, named the holly dollie, Polly. So Yally Bally’s jolly golli’s holly dollie Polly’s also jolly!
Out in the pasture the nature watcher watches the catcher. While the catcher watches the pitcher who pitches the balls. Whether the temperature’s up or whether the temperature’s down, the nature watcher, the catcher and the pitcher are always around. The pitcher pitches, the catcher catches and the watcher watches. So whether the temperature’s rises or whether the temperature falls the nature watcher just watches the catcher who’s watching the pitcher who’s watching the balls.
short i
I wish you were a fish in my dish
The big black bug bit the big black bear,
but the big black bear bit the big black bug back!
I’m not the fig plucker,
Nor the fig plucker’s son,
but I’ll pluck your figs
till the fig plucker comes.
The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick
Five frantic frogs fled from fifty fierce fishes.
Dr. Johnson and Mr. Johnson, after great consideration, came to the conclusion that the Indian nation beyond the Indian Ocean is back in education because the chief occupation is cultivation.
How much dew does a dewdrop drop
If dewdrops do drop dew?
They do drop, they do
As do dewdrops drop
If dewdrops do drop dew.
Bake big batches of bitter brown bread.
Fresh fried fish,
Fish fresh fried,
Fried fish fresh,
Fish fried fresh.
I am not a pheasant plucker,
I’m a pheasant plucker’s son
but I’ll be plucking pheasants
When the pheasant plucker’s gone.
Six shining cities, six shining cities, six shining cities.
circumflex o
While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington’s windows with warm washing water.
Betty Botter bought some butter but she said the butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter. So, she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter and she put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter. So ’twas good that Betty Botter bought some better butter.
She sells sea shells on the sea shore;
The shells that she sells are sea shells I’m sure.
So if she sells sea shells on the sea shore,
I’m sure that the shells are sea shore shells.
diphthong oi
What noise annoys an oyster most?
A noisy noise annoys an oyster most.
long o
How much dough would Bob Dole dole
if Bob Dole could dole dough?
Bob Dole would dole as much dough
as Bob Dole could dole,
if Bob Dole could dole dough.
Ripe white wheat reapers reap ripe white wheat right.
Blake’s black bike’s back brake bracket block broke.
Each Easter Eddie eats eighty Easter eggs.
I am a mother pheasant plucker,
I pluck mother pheasants.
I am the best mother pheasant plucker,
that ever plucked a mother pheasant!
Whether the weather be fine
or whether the weather be not.
Whether the weather be cold
or whether the weather be hot.
We’ll weather the weather
whether we like it or not.
How many yaks could a yak pack pack if a yak pack could pack yaks?
If you stick a stock of liquor in your locker
it is slick to stick a lock upon your stock
or some joker who is slicker
is going to trick you of your liquor
if you fail to lock your liquor with a lock.
If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.
Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the succesful thistle-sifter, while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. Now, if Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the succesful thistle-sifter, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, see that thou, while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb.
Esau Wood sawed wood. All the wood Esau Wood saw, Esau Wood would saw. All the wood Wood saw, Esau sought to saw. One day Esau Wood’s wood-saw would saw no wood. So Esau Wood sought a new wood-saw. The new wood-saw would saw wood. Oh, the wood Esau Wood would saw. Esau sought a saw that would saw wood as no other wood-saw would saw. And Esau found a saw that would saw as no other wood-saw would saw. And Esau Wood sawed wood.
Ned Nott was shot
and Sam Shott was not.
So it is better to be Shott
than Nott.
Some say Nott
was not shot.
But Shott says
he shot Nott.
Either the shot Shott shot at Nott
was not shot,
or
Nott was shot.
If the shot Shott shot shot Nott,
Nott was shot.
But if the shot Shott shot shot Shott,
then Shott was shot,
not Nott.
However,
the shot Shott shot shot not Shott –
but Nott.
If Dr. Seuss Were a Technical Writer….. Here’s an easy game to play.
Here’s an easy thing to say: If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted ’cause the index doesn’t hash,
then your situation’s hopeless, and your system’s gonna crash! You can’t say this? What a shame, sir!
We’ll find you another game, sir. If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
That’s repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
‘Cause as sure as I’m a poet, the sucker’s gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy’s getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk,
Then you have to flash your memory and you’ll want to ram your rom.
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!
I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought,
I wouldn’t have thought so much.
Meter maid Mary married manly Matthew Marcus Mayo,
a moody male mailman moving mostly metered mail.
To begin to toboggan first, buy a toboggan.
But do not buy too big a toboggan!
Too big a toboggan is too big a toboggan to buy to begin to toboggan.
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.
Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,
A clip drape shipshape tip top sock.
Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,
But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.
None of your fantastic slack swap slop
From a slap dash flash cash haberdash shop.
Not a knick knack knitlock knockneed knickerbocker sock
With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock.
Not a supersheet seersucker rucksack sock,
Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock
Off a hodge-podge moss-blotched scotch-botched block.
Nothing slipshod drip drop flip flop or glip glop
Tip me to a tip top grip top sock. articulation warmup for actors
Terry Teeter, a teeter-totter teacher, taught her daughter Tara to teeter-totter, but Tara Teeter didn’t teeter-totter as Terry Teeter taught her to. I bought a bit of baking powder and baked a batch of biscuits. I brought a big basket of biscuits back to the bakery and baked a basket of big biscuits. Then I took the big basket of biscuits and the basket of big biscuits and mixed the big biscuits with the basket of biscuits that was next to the big basket and put a bunch of biscuits from the basket into a biscuit mixer and brought the basket of biscuits and the box of mixed biscuits and the biscuit mixer to the bakery and opened a tin of sardines. Said to be a diction test for would-be radio announcers: To be read clearly, without mistakes, in less than 20 seconds (from Coronet Magazine, August 1948).
I’m a mother pheasant plucker.
I pluck mother pheasants.
I’m the pleasantest mother pheasant plucker,
That ever plucked a mother pheasant.
Actually, …
I’m Not the pheasant plucker,
I’m the pheasant plucker’s son.
But I’ll stay and pluck the pheasants
Till the pheasant plucking ’s done!
The Smothers brothers’ father’s mother’s brothers are
the Smothers brothers’ mother’s father’s other brothers.
d sound
Dear mother,
give your other udder
to my other brother.
A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad’s heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn’t please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.
You’ve no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light’s light’s a slight light,
And tonight’s a night that’s light.
When a night’s light, like tonight’s light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.
Hope you enjoyed the twisters!
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2 Responses to “Tongue Twisters”
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Great post. I’ll have to try some of these on my nephew he loves things like this.
No problem, I use some of them during my training… and believe me, even adults still have their tongues twisted