Tongue twisters and speech!

Do you think that tongue twisters can help you with your speech and your accent?

I do, but I hated them when I was a little girl. I came across this one today "She sells seashells" and it feels so annoying it has to much "s", but I like it, from where I'm from we tend to drop the "s" at the end of the words so this one is a good practice. I'll leave you here one in Spanish just so our Spanish learners can have a little fun: "Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal, en tres tristes trastos tragaban trigo tres tristes tigres" (English: Three sad tigers swallowed wheat in a wheat field, in three sad dishes three sad tigers swallowed wheat")

Annoying? Wow. I've never heard anyone refer to tongue twisters as annoying. 

Anyway, I found it interesting and fun. However, I don't know if it can influence speaking a new language fluently. 

Smartchiny wrote:

Annoying? Wow. I've never heard anyone refer to tongue twisters as annoying.

Anyway, I found it interesting and fun. However, I don't know if it can influence speaking a new language fluently.

Haha I felt it annoying because of all of the "s" it has. I think that when it comes to speech the key is to practice a lot, not only things that we are comfortable in (like a regular conversation or reading a regular text outloud) but things that challenge us and get the muscles in our mouth we barely use more use :)

Smartchiny wrote:

Annoying? Wow. I've never heard anyone refer to tongue twisters as annoying.
Anyway, I found it interesting and fun. However, I don't know if it can influence speaking a new language fluently.

I find them funnily annoying and annoyingly fun :D 

One of those I learned while learning Mandarin as a kid was this:

Shi si shi shi si

Si shi shi si shi

Shi si bu shi si shi

Si shi bu shi shi si

Fourteen is fourteen

Forty is forty

Fourteen is not forty

Forty is not fourteen. 

To this day, it's still impossible for me to say it really fast, but it is actually quite helpful in clarifying the difference between the "sh" and the "s" sounds in mandarin. 

meifeng wrote:

One of those I learned while learning Mandarin as a kid was this:

Shi si shi shi si

Si shi shi si shi

Shi si bu shi si shi

Si shi bu shi shi si

Fourteen is fourteen

Forty is forty

Fourteen is not forty

Forty is not fourteen.

To this day, it's still impossible for me to say it really fast, but it is actually quite helpful in clarifying the difference between the "sh" and the "s" sounds in mandarin.

That tongue twister reminds me of a post Leo posted here, take a look @.@

https://languagetools.io/forum/t/2197

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

That tongue twister reminds me of a post Leo posted here, take a look @.@
https://languagetools.io/forum/t/2197

Holy cow! I've not come across that, but that's the same basic "word" repeated continually in 4 tones. 

I think they can serve as a useful tool for annunciation because they are tough to say correctly without proper diction and annunciation. When i work as a singing teacher we use toungue twisting excersised to warm up the muscles of the face before we perform. Here are a couple i use;

A dozen double damask dinner napkins,

red lorry yellow lorry,

eleven elegant elephants with elementary eloquence. 

I love tongue twisters! They make me feel like a child again. My fav is 

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickle pepper

How many peck of pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick

"Pad kid poured curd pulled cod." :joy:

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

meifeng wrote:

One of those I learned while learning Mandarin as a kid was this:
Shi si shi shi si
Si shi shi si shi
Shi si bu shi si shi
Si shi bu shi shi si
Fourteen is fourteen
Forty is forty
Fourteen is not forty
Forty is not fourteen.
To this day, it's still impossible for me to say it really fast, but it is actually quite helpful in clarifying the difference between the "sh" and the "s" sounds in mandarin.

That tongue twister reminds me of a post Leo posted here, take a look @.@
https://languagetools.io/forum/t/2197

Haha, that one's amazing! 

It reminds me of Buffalo :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

My dad loved; Father Francis fried five fishes for five friends from France. 

Keep them coming! I can't believe that buffalo has all those meanings! 

Have you ever beaten your lip because of a tongue twister?

So good! I use tongue twisters for warm up for voice acting. Pronunciation and articulation is very important, we need to stretch those muscles beforehand. So cool, is there a way I can save this post? :))) 

And yes I have beaten my lip and tongue doing it myself I am sure. :)) 

The Spanish was easy, the ones with "T" are easier as I can see 

Mai wrote:

So good! I use tongue twisters for warm up for voice acting. Pronunciation and articulation is very important, we need to stretch those muscles beforehand. So cool, is there a way I can save this post? :)))
And yes I have beaten my lip and tongue doing it myself I am sure. :))
The Spanish was easy, the ones with "T" are easier as I can see

The difficulties with the one in Spanish is the "Tr", when people try to say it faster they start to add or take the "r" off the words. I'll leave two more in Spanish:

- Cuando cuentes cuentos cuenta cuantos cuentos cuentas, porque si no cuentas cuantos cuentos cuentas nunca sabrás cuántos cuentos sabes contar.

- Como poco coco como,poco coco compro.

Gracias that is epic, I will never remember t without reading it at the same time though ! 

Rough translation please ? I got as far as when you tell stories and went cross eyed !!!

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Gracias that is epic, I will never remember t without reading it at the same time though !

Rough translation please ? I got as far as when you tell stories and went cross eyed !!!

- Cuando cuentes cuentos cuenta cuantos cuentos cuentas, porque si no cuentas cuantos cuentos cuentas nunca sabrás cuántos cuentos sabes contar. (When you're telling a story, count how many stories you are telling, because if you don't count how many stories you are telling, you'll never know how many stories you can tell)

- Como poco coco como,poco coco compro. (Since I eat few coconuts, few coconuts I'll purchase)

Rocco the rum-runner rubbed out Rico the Rat with his Roscoe for robbing his rum-running receipts.  

Here's a famous tongue twister in our language... 

Ang relo ni Leroy ay rolex.

edz.conde wrote:

Here's a famous tongue twister in our language...

Ang relo ni Leroy ay rolex.

Translation? :o.... Tagalog?

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

edz.conde wrote:

Here's a famous tongue twister in our language...
Ang relo ni Leroy ay rolex.

Translation? :o.... Tagalog?

Relo is from the Spanish "reloj" meaning "clock." It refers to a wristwatch in this case. Leroy and Rolex are pronounced with Latin vowels, so "LEH-roy" and "ROH-leks"

"Leroy's watch is a Rolex."

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

edz.conde wrote:

Here's a famous tongue twister in our language...

Ang relo ni Leroy ay rolex.

Translation? :o.... Tagalog?

Translation was given by Philip... yeah, it's Tagalog

Finally found the one my nan used to tell us 

Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, 

The succesful thistle-sifter, 

While sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, 

Thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

Now, if Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, 

The succesful thistle-sifter, 

Thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, 

See that thou, while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, 

Thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb.

For me, not really. Tongue twisters are just for fun.. But it's good to practice it from time to time. :)

There's already a post on this. Perhaps add your contribution there?

https://languagetools.io/forum/t/2352