What is the hardest tongue twister you have ever seen? Humorous ones are also welcome.
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I read that the "The sixth sick Sheik's sixth sheep is sick" holds the Guinness record as the world's hardest tongue twister but playing with a new tongue twister game I recently downloaded, I found this one the most difficult: There are two minutes difference from four to two to two to two, from two to two to two, too.– JohnKCommented Jun 29, 2011 at 3:38
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20 Answers
I've always liked
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
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14I'm kind of surprised this was the accepted answer. I'm not surprised it is not the leading vote-getter. It is one of the least difficult-to-say tongue twisters out there. Actually, I'm not even sure I would call it a tongue twister at all (but for the fact that it is commonly accepted as such); to me it's just an example of alliteration.– John YCommented Jan 22, 2011 at 22:29
From the various tongue twister collections you can find (English Tongue Twisters, alpha dictionary English Tongue-Twisters, English club Tongue-Twisters, ...), one of the hardest is the classic:
The sixth sick Sheik's sixth sheep is sick.
But that will obviously vary depending on your accent and region.
As illustrated by this college exercise, it can be a way to improve some specific pronunciation.
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2You forgot The socks of the Archduchess, are they dry or bone dry? :)– BenjolCommented Nov 30, 2010 at 8:41
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3I can barely say the sick Shiek one, but have no trouble at all with Peter Piper.– TRiGCommented Jan 21, 2011 at 20:25
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Lordy. The only way I can say this one is with a two-second pause between words while I rearrange my tongue. Tongue-twister indeed.– MarthaªCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 15:26
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1Yep, "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick." with the apostrophized "sheep" is easily the toughest one I've come across. The words just blur into one unless I purposely put a pause between each one. :-)– JezCommented Feb 9, 2011 at 15:53
There is always the pheasant plucker, it is very difficult indeed in polite society :)
There is a song: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mentor01/song.htm
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2The first time I heard this was in my Drama class, as "I'm a mother pheasant plucker / I like to pluck mother pheasants / I'm the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker / who ever plucked a mother pheasant." We were challenged to recite it as quickly as possible. All others failed to much laughter and embarrassment, but I recited it perfectly on the first go, then punctuated the end with a great shout of "motherf—er!" Good times. Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 22:24
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore. The shells she sells are sea-shells I'm sure.
This one is interesting as it refers to a real person with a fascinating life: Mary Anning, a self-taught fossilist.
One of the simplest is repeating "Toy Boat" aloud as fast as possible.
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The incredibly short
Irish wristwatch
has always been difficult for me.
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1+1 - Automatically turn into Sean Connery when saying this one.– boehjCommented May 13, 2011 at 8:44
I always liked:
The Leith police dismisseth us.
(Leith is an area of Edinburgh, pronounced to rhyme with 'teeth'.)
I'm not sure if this falls under tongue-twister, but I've always loved it.
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.
But, a bit of better butter
Will make my batter better.So, she bought a bit of butter
Better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter
And the batter was not bitter.
So, 'twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.
Lorry is a British English word for a large truck and allows us to use "red lorry, yellow lorry" which is about as hard as it gets.
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Nice. This one is so hard, most people trip the second time they say it.– Sky RedCommented Feb 7, 2011 at 7:09
While not the most difficult, one of my favorites is "Rubber baby buggy bumpers."
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I appreciate the fact that you acknowledge it's not that difficult. I agree with you that it's cute and fun. :)– John YCommented Jan 22, 2011 at 22:35
Almost anything from Dr Seuss, especially his
bed spreaders spread spreads on beds and bread spreaders spread butter on breads
and:
tweetle beetle paddle puddle battle
and from Fox in Socks, anything to do with
chicks and clocks, bricks and blocks.
Not terribly tough but lots of fun.
And this one from a ladybird phonics book:
Thin chips, thick chips, lick-your-lips chips.
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What do you know about Tweetle Beetles? (Anything from Fox in Socks).– GEdgarCommented Aug 24, 2011 at 0:44
This is one that is hard to say quick:
Red Robin, the red river rat, ran right round the the rabbit's rickety rocking chair, and rubbed his rosy, rusty, red rump on the rumpled red rug.
I've always liked this (juvenile) one, from the Steve Martin film "The Jerk":
I slit the sheet;
The sheet I slit.
Upon the slitted sheet I sit.
Contiguous mnemonic anomalies. We had to be able to say this 10 times rapidly to graduate from my GIS class.
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@martha - Geographic Information Systems. And we didn't really, we just joked that we had to...– user597Commented May 24, 2011 at 19:03
One of my personal favorites:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?
More of a 'bum-twister' really, and definitely beneath me, but I always liked
I always like the old Wood Chuck. I am surprised that nobody said anything about it yet.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, And chuck as much as a woodchuck would If a woodchuck could chuck wood.