List of tongue-twisters
This phrase can be used to tell if someone is drunk or not:
List of tongue-twisters in English
Or, 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 Piper Piper picked?
or: Betty bought a bit of butter, but the bit of butter Betty bought was bitter, so Betty bought a better bit of butter than the bit of butter Betty bought before.
Tongue twisters in languages other than English
Albanian
translation: The caricaturist caricaturates caracteristic caricatures
translation: The cup with a lid the cup without a lid
translation: The hen of Lleshi laid an egg in a wool basketBulgarian
Chinese (Cantonese)
(known as 急口令)
translation: The drunken soldier stopped and listened.
translation: Fu's wife carried her husband to the rich man's mansion.Chinese (Mandarin)
(known as 繞口令)
The following is a famous tongue twister written by Yuen Ren Chao. It is a short story written exclusively with various tones of two similar sounding syllables (shi), and composed in the literary Chinese style.
translation: Xi Shi (a famous woman) died at age 44.
石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。氏時時適市視獅。十時，適十獅適市。是時，適施氏適是市。氏視十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。食時，始識十獅實十石獅屍。試釋是事。
ShÃÂàshÃÂì shī shÃÂì shī shÃÂì, shÃÂì shī, shÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂàshī.
ShÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂàshÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂì shī.
ShÃÂàshÃÂà, shÃÂì shÃÂàshī shÃÂì shÃÂì.
ShÃÂì shÃÂà, shÃÂì shī shÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂì.
ShÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂàshī, shÃÂì shǐ shÃÂì, shǐ shÃÂì shÃÂàshī shÃÂì shÃÂì.
ShÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂì shÃÂàshī shī, shÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂì.
ShÃÂàshÃÂì shī, shÃÂì shǐ shÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂì.
ShÃÂàshÃÂì shÃÂì, shÃÂì shǐ shÃÂì shÃÂàshÃÂàshī shī.
ShÃÂàshÃÂÃÂ, shǐ shÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂàshī shī,
shÃÂÃÂ shÃÂÃÂ shÃÂÃÂ shī shī .
ShÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂì shÃÂì.
Shuiu2 shi2 shuiu shi
Czech
Translation: Stick a finger through your throat.
Note that this sentence has no vowels!Dutch
Translation: The coachman cleans the stagecoach with stagecoach cleaner.
Translation: The cat scratches the woodcurls of the stairs with three dry cloths
Translation: the clever barber cuts hair well, but the clever helper of the clever barber cuts hair more clever that the clever barber cuts it.Estonian
Translation: Baker's ginger biscuit.
Translation: Black cow's tale behind a white cow, white cow's tale behind a black cow.Finnish
Translation: The water pixie hissed in an elevator.
Translation: The rectory's deacon's bean casserole boils on the oven.
Translation: Gather up a full bonfire! A full bonfire? A full bonfire.
Translation: Risk of frost on how-lying lands.
Translation: Black cat's thick cheeks.
Translation: I twine an 'R' around a purline.
Translation: Fine piano.French
Translation: The wheel on the road rolls; the road under the wheel stays.
Translation: A hunter who knows how to hunt without his dog is a good hunter.
Translation: Pope Pius's dad's pipe stinks.
Translation: If these sausages are good, these sausages here are also good.
Translation: Basket piano.
Translation: The archduchess's socks are dry, very dry.German
Variant: Es klapperten die Klapperschlangen bis dass ihre Klappern schlapper klangen.
Translation: The rattlesnakes rattled until their rattles began to sound exhausted.
Translation: The Fishers' boy Fritz is fishing for fresh fish.
Translation: bride's dress remains bride's dress, and blue herb remains blue herb.
Translation: The driver of the Potsdam stage coach cleans the case of the Potsdam stage coach.
Translation: At the Potsdam boxing club, the boss of the Potsdam post bus is boxing. (Almost works in English too.)
Translation: The barrel of wine that Mrs. Weber emptied ruined her liver count.
Translation: The whiskey mixer (barman) mixes whiskey with the whiskey mixer (device). (The fun here lies in the most probable mistake: wichsen is a vulgar German term for "to masturbate".)
Translation: In a dense thicket of spruces, thick spruces take a big nap. (Most probable mistake: German ficken means "to fuck").
Translation (High German): Ein Marmeladeneimerchen haben wir daheim auch.
Translation (English): A marmelade can, we have at home, too.
Translation: The chaplain is sticking posters made of heavy card to the notice board.
Translation: If flies fly behind flies, then flies fly behind flies.Hungarian
Translation: Five Turks are massaging five Greeks amid everlasting delights.Marathi (Indian)
Translation: Cooked lentil wafer, raw lentil wafer.
Polish
Translation: Come on, drop your sadness into the depth of a bottle.
Transalation: Sasza (name) was going along a dry road while drying his trousers.Portuguese
Translation: The mouse gnawed the cork of the bottle of rum of the king of Russia.
Translation: The mouse gnaw gnawed and, Rosa Rita Ramalho, of the mouse that gnaws laughs!
Translation: The sink drips, the young chicken chirps, drips the sink, chirps the young chicken, the young chicken close to the sink, the sink close to the young chicken.
Translation: The Pope eats the stomach of the duck.
Translation: Peter has the black chest. Of black color is the chest of Peter. Who says that the chest of Peter is not black, has the chest more black than the chest of Peter.
Translation: - Mason of the cathedral is the priest Peter here? - Which priest Peter? - the priest Peter Pires Pisco Pascoal. - Here in the cathedral it has three priests Peters Pires Piscos Pascoais. As in other cathedrals.Russian
Spanish
Translation: The archbishop of Constantinople does not want to be the archbishop of Constantinople, and the archbishop who un-archbishop-of-Constantinople-izes him will be a good un-archbishop-of-Constantinople-ifier.
Translation: Three sad tigers eat wheat in a wheat field.Swedish
Translation: Six salmons in a salmon-box.
Translation: Pack daddy's suitcase.
Translation: Seven sick seamen were cared for by seven beautiful nurses.
Translation: to pick peppercorns in a copper pan.
Translations: in the manner pertaining to the West Coast. (the double occurence of 'st' followed by consonant clusters containing hard k's make this very awkward to pronounce correctly).Serbian
Translation: On top of a hill a willow swings.
Translation: White goat kid started to bark.
Translation: Have they yet this opanci (kind of shoes) of yours unacidified to you?
Translation: A turk brat rolls a barrel, a turk damsel pushes a barrel. Turk brat faster rolls a barrel then turk damsel pushes a barrel.
Translation: Up there woods burn worse. (Each word is said with different tone, and that is tongue-twister. Further, as Serbian language has flexible word order, there are 24 combinations of the tones, each having different emphasis. It is not easy to say all 24 combinations one after the other.)
Translation: Supplied (This is actually not a tongue-twister for speakers of Serbian and similar languages, but is for speakers of languages which don't have words with as much as six consonants together).
Xhosa
Translation: The skunk rolled down and ruptured its larynx(The last word contains three 'clicks').External links