Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. They can also help to improve accents by using alliteration, which is the repetition of one sound. They’re great for kids and singers, but are also used by actors, politicians, and public speakers who want to sound clear when speaking.

Singers would consider their tone to be the one of the most important parts of their voice, along with stage presence, confidence, vocal range and agility as important areas regarding singing. However, singers do not always consider the need for crisp, clear and precise articulation to complement and add to their vocal delivery.   Being able to pronounce your words in order for them to be clearly understood is such an asset to a singer.

Try to use your articulators when forming consonant to help form your vowels as his will give your words more clarity.

Your Articulators would be:

  • Tongue,
  • Teeth,
  • Lips
  • Jaw.

Play with the following consonants and vowels to help you be aware of where and how these sounds are formed . What sounds good and what doesn’t? Eg if you dropped your jaw, or moved the position of your tongue, does it change the sound for better or worse?

Both lips  –  P, B, M, W and WH

Tongue Tip and hard palate  – D,L,N,R,S and Z

Lower lip and upper teeth  – F and V

Back of tongue and soft palate  – K, G and NG 

Jaw, tongue and lips  – A, E, I, O and U 

Below, you will find a collection of  some of the most popular  tongue twisters. Say them as quickly as you can. Have lots of fun with them and if you can master them, you will become much more confident with your lyrics.

 

I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop.

Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.

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A synonym for cinnamon is a cinnamon synonym.

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Seth at Sainsbury’s sells thick socks.

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Sheena leads, Sheila needs.

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Stupid superstition!

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Send toast to ten tense stout saints’ ten tall tents.

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A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.

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If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?

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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?

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Imagine, imagining imagining,

an imaginary imaginary imaginary menagerie manager,

imagining imagining imagining an imaginary imaginary imaginary managerie.

 

 

Wayne went to Wales to watch walruses

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If Pickford’s packers packed a packet of crisps.

Would the packet of crisps that Pickford’s packers packed survive for two and a half years

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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.

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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.

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Four furious friends fought for the phone.

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Black background, brown background.

 

Five frantic frogs fled from fifty fierce fishes.

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East Fife Four, Forfar Five

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It’s not the cough that carries you off,
it’s the coffin they carry you off in!

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She stood on the balcony, inexplicably mimicking him hiccuping, and amicably welcoming him in.

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A terrible difficult thing to say
But a harder thing still to do.
The dragon will come at the beat of the drum
With a rat-a-tat-tat a-tat-tat a-tat-to
At a quarter or two to two today,
At a quarter or two to two.

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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. 

 

When a doctor doctors a doctor,
does the doctor doing the doctoring
doctor as the doctor being doctored wants to be doctored or
does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as he wants to doctor?

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If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?

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A tree toad loved a she-toad,

Who lived up in a tree.

He was a three-toed tree toad,

But a two-toed toad was she.

The three-toed tree toad tried to win,

The two-toed she-toad’s heart,

For the three-toed tree toad loved the ground,

That the two-toed tree toad trod.

But the three-toed tree toad tried in vain.

He couldn’t please her whim.

From her tree toad bower,

With her two-toed power,

The she-toad vetoed him.

 

 

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.

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Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.

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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!

by W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan from The Mikado

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The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.

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The Final Fixing of the Foolish Fugitive

Feeling footloose, fancy-free and frisky, this feather-brained fellow finagled his fond father into forking over his fortune. Forthwith, he fled for foreign fields and frittered his farthings feasting fabulously with fair-weather friends. Finally, fleeced by those folly filled fellows and facing famine, he found him-self a feed flinger in a filthy farm-lot. He fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from fodder fragments.

“Fooey! My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing fact.

Frustrated from failure and filled with forebodings, he fled for his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly. “Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited further family favors . . .”

But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged his flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.

But the fugitive’s fault finding frater, faithfully farming his father’s fields for free, frowned at this fickle forgiveness of former falderal. His fury flashed, but fussing was futile.

His foresighted father figured, “Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivities? The fugitive is found! Unfurl the flags! With fanfare flaring, let fun, frolic and frivolity flow freely, former failures forgotten and folly forsaken.”

Forgiveness forms a firm foundation for future fortitude.

Feeling footloose, fancy-free and frisky, this feather-brained fellow finagled his fond father into forking over his fortune. Forthwith, he fled for foreign fields and frittered his farthings feasting fabulously with fair-weather friends. Finally, fleeced by those folly filled fellows and facing famine, he found him-self a feed flinger in a filthy farm-lot. He fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from fodder fragments.

“Fooey! My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing fact.

Frustrated from failure and filled with forebodings, he fled for his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly. “Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited further family favors . . .”

But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged his flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.

But the fugitive’s fault finding frater, faithfully farming his father’s fields for free, frowned at this fickle forgiveness of former falderal. His fury flashed, but fussing was futile.

His foresighted father figured, “Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivities? The fugitive is found! Unfurl the flags! With fanfare flaring, let fun, frolic and frivolity flow freely, former failures forgotten and folly forsaken.”

Forgiveness forms a firm foundation for future fortitude.