What are Tongue Twisters?

Reciting a tricky rhyme or phrase as fast as possible without tripping over the verbal challenges and hurdles lurking within these tongue-tying sentences, such as "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," needs practice.

By combining the effects of alliteration (repetition of a sound), particularly of similar but not identical sounds, with a phrase designed such that it is made very easy to slip (perhaps making a Spoonerism) accidentally, these sentences and poems can be guaranteed to provide lots of fun.

But tongue twisters are not only for lighthearted linguistic fun and games. They serve a practical purpose in practicing pronunciation. English tongue twisters may be used by foreign students of English to improve their accent, actors who need to develop a certain accent, and by speech therapists to help persons with speech difficulties.

When their use is for one of these more serious reasons, then tongue twisters are generally subdivided into categories classifying them by the particular vowel or consonant sounds they exercise. The Peter Piper twister, for example, clearly provides practice for the P sound.

What's a tongue twister? It's a phrase, sentence, or poem that is very difficult to say, and almost impossible to say quickly, without making mistakes as your tongue trips all over itself. We've collected some of the best ones for you.

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