How To Improve English Speaking With Tongue Twisters

We’re going to give you a way on how to improve English speaking with some tongue twisters. Improving your spoken English is always going to be a challenge, especially if you’re not in an English speaking environment or if you’re with a group of people who refuse to stop speaking your native language!

There are also several sounds that you are required to make when speaking English that are difficult to practise and not as natural to you as your own language. We do have an app to help with english pronunciation, but why not try some of these seven tongue twisters to practise your English speaking too?

 

1. Peter Piper and the Peppers

Starting off with a classic, see if you can hit all of these ‘p’ sounds:

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?

In case you’re wondering, a ‘peck’ is a measurement of volume that’s not used very often these days.

 

2. Pronouncing ‘th’ thanks to the thieves

This is a nice short tongue twister that you can try if you are struggling with making a “th” sound, something that a lot of English relies on and a sound that a lot of non-native speakers struggle with:

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

 

3. Shoe chewing

This is a good way to practise differentiating between your ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ sounds:

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

For this tongue twister, I imagine that Stu is a dog.

 

4. Selling sea shells on the sea shore

If you want some more practise on that ‘sh’ sound, this one is ideal:

She sells sea shells on the sea shore;
The shells that she sells are sea shells I'm sure.
So if she sells sea shells on the sea shore,
I'm sure that the shells are sea shore shells.

 

5. Fishing for Fisher the fisherman

This is a tongue twister and a limerick (a poem that follows a particular pattern) all in one:

There was a fisherman named Fisher
who fished for some fish in a fissure.
Till a fish with a grin,
pulled the fisherman in.
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.

 

6. Betty’s batter and butter

You might sometimes have to say several words together that all sound very similar. Hopefully you’ll never end up having to say something like the following in normal conversation, but it’s good practise:

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 ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter

The word “‘twas” in the last line is an archaic way of saying “it was”. We would recommend trying to slip that into conversation!

 

7. A fuzzy bear

Finally, this one is probably my favourite. I’m not sure it will help any specific area of your spoken English, but it might make you giggle:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

 

Have you got any favourite tongue twisters? Why not share them in the comments!