Important Tongue Twisters Everyone Should Know

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.

If you too want to improve or perfect your English pronunciation, let’s dive into this complete list of English tongue twisters

A tongue twister is a specific sequence of words whose rapid, repeated pronunciation is difficult even for native speakers.
Often these are similar words which follow one another but differ in certain syllables. Alliterations are also frequent.
In addition, some tongues are difficult because of their unusual word composition (sentence structure) and therefore require a high level of concentration.

Tongue Twisters to improve pronunciation in English

Remember:
it’s not just how fast you say them, but how clearly too!

Short tongue twisters

Before trying the English tongue twisters for champions that talk fast, let’s warm-up your speech muscles with some short and fairly easy tongue twisters for beginners.

• Eleven benevolent elephants.
• She sees cheese.
• Six sticky skeletons.
• Truly rural.
• Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.
• Which witch is which?
• Willy’s real rear wheel.
• Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards.
• Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.
• A happy hippo hopped and hiccupped.
• Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.
• Really leery, rarely Larry.
• Twelve twins twirled twelve twigs.
• A snake sneaks to seek a snack.
• Six Czech cricket critics.

Tongue twisters for kids

Tongue twisters for kids are all sweet, fun and games until you increase the speed. If you haven’t had enough training, even they can tie your tongue into a Gordian knot. Literally.

Take a little brother, sister or your own kid and let’s see who wins the challenge! (Record video and send US)

Tongue twisters with “s”, “r”, “l” and “th”

As we already mentioned, tongue twisters can be extremely helpful for speech therapy. If you are having problems pronouncing certain sounds like “s”, “r”, “l” or “th”, practicing with the right tongue twisters can ameliorate your speech impediment. Here are a few examples:

Tongue twisters with “s”

• She sells seashells by the seashore of Seychelles.
• “Surely Sylvia swims!” shrieked Sammy surprised. “Someone should show Sylvia some strokes so she shall not sink.”
• Selfish shellfish. (repeat it several times)

Tongue twisters with “r” and “l”

• Red lorry, yellow lorry.
• A really leery Larry rolls readily to the road.
• Rory’s lawn rake rarely rakes really right.
• Lucky rabbits like to cause a ruckus.
• I looked right at Larry’s rally and left in a hurry.
• Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.

Tongue twisters with “th”

• The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.
• 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 I thought.
• 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.
• Thirty-three thousand feathers on a thrushes throat.

When it comes to tongue twisters and talking fast, we can’t help but think about Eminem. Did you know that he manages to rap with a whopping speed of 11.4 syllables per second in his song “Rap God”? We don’t know much about rap, but that sure sounds like something only the God of Rap could do.

Don’t worry though! We are not running out of challenges.

• 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!
  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!
  A dull, dark dock, a life-long lock,
  A short, sharp shock, a big black block!
  To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison,
  And awaiting the sensation
  From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
• If you must cross a course cross cow across a crowded cow crossing, cross the cross coarse cow across the crowded cow crossing carefully.
• Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades, blunderbusses, and bludgeons — balancing them badly.
• Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
• Can you can a canned can into an un-canned can like a canner can can a canned can into an un-canned can?
• Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.
• Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared wrongly in a rural brewery.
• Send toast to ten tense stout saints’ ten tall tents.