Tongue Twisters for the Weekend

It's the weekend and time for some fun! Today we are going to have a look at some tongue twisters – yay! Tongue twisters are made up of sentences that are deliberately designed to be difficult to say properly, and when repeated four, five or six times they often lead to some hilarious results. It doesn't matter how hard you try, you cannot keep repeating these tricky little monsters without getting yourself in a tangle. Here's a little example of what I'm talking about:

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?

Try reading “Peter Piper” out aloud. If you do so very slowly and carefully you may be okay, and manage to articulate each word correctly. Now try repeating it another five times, speaking more quickly each time. So did you do it? I bet there were some interesting results!

In case there are any “smart Alecs” out there who are saying that was too easy, here's another that I guarantee will get you in a muddle:

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes a better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better.

Make sure you say it quickly. How many times did you manage correctly? I only got to two before mixing up my butters, bitters and batters lol!

 Tongue twisters are aptly called as they use words that require you to reposition your tongue between syllables. They then repeat the same words in a different order, causing chaos. They also use similar but distinct sounds to throw you into confusion. Although generally thought of as a bit of fun, they can be very helpful in the development of clear speech and can be an asset to anyone wishing to improve their diction.

 However, be careful because some are designed to give humorous but rude results. If the following tongue twister is repeated often enough you may find yourself saying a four lettered word that you are not used to using!

I am not the pheasant plucker,
I'm the pheasant plucker's mate.
I am only plucking pheasants
'cause the pheasant plucker's late.

Okay I think that is enough of that for one day!

There are many, many more examples of tongue twisters I could give you. However, I want to leave you with one that, according to the American author and columnist William Poundstone, is the most difficult in the English Language.

The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us.

I hope you have some fun repeating these tricky little twisters!

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