English tongue twisters are not just comical phrases and poems, but also a popular tool for practicing pronunciation. When we begin to get used to foreign sounds, it is difficult to pronounce them because they are too unusual for the brain and speech organs. It is not enough just to know how to pronounce sounds, you need to practice their pronunciation, so that the brain has learned to form the necessary signals and organs of speech to make the required movements. Tongue twisters are exercises that accelerate this process.
You can, of course, learn the rules of reading and pronunciation without tongue twisters by reading out loud and listening to the speech of native speakers and then repeating after them, but with tongue twisters, it is quicker
We have collected tongue twisters of different levels for you, from easy to difficult. You can just repeat them from time to time, but it is always a good idea to memorize a few. It is interesting and most importantly useful for your English. It makes no sense to translate tongue twisters as they are based on wordplay and are often meaningless.
Red lorry, yellow lorry
Truly rural
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream
Rolling red wagons
Red blood, bad blood
Blue blurry vines blind
Betty loves the velvet vest best
Barber baby bubbles and a bumblebee
Burnt base, vicious vase
Vivacious Val vacuumed Violet’s very vivid vehicle
A big black bug snoozed on a big black rug
He threw three free throws
Thin sticks, thick bricks
Fred fed Ted bread and Ted fed Fred bread
King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb.
A thousand thistles King Thistle stuck in the thistle of his thumb.
If King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb,
How many thistles did King Thistle stick in the thistle of his thumb?
A Tudor who tooted a flute
tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to their tutor,
“Is it harder to toot
or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
Whether the weather is cold,
Whether the weather is hot,
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
EC Vancouver suggests using English tongue twisters as they will help you to train your speaking skills, improve your articulation as well as your pronunciation. If the tongue twisters seem too easy to you, then try to repeat it several times in a row – the trick lies in this.