Tongue Twisters Exercises to Improve English Pronunciation

When learning a language like English, it is important to learn the correct pronunciation right away, not to correct your pronunciation at some point in the future. Being able to work out a particular sound pattern with a tongue twister helps not only with perfecting the sounds of consonants, but also with being able to speak the language quickly and clearly. Learn a few tongue twisters and repeat them several times each day and you will see a noticeable improvement. Give it a try and see how you do!

Phonetic tongue twister exercices

1. Exercise for the sounds [w], [t], and [d]

Whenever the weather is hot.

We'll weather the weather,

whatever the weather,

whether we like it or not.

2. Exercise for the sound [b]

How many berries could a bare berry carry, if a bare berry could carry berries?

Well they can not carry berries

(Which could make you very wary)

but a bare berry carried is more scary!

3. Exercise for the sounds [f] and [sh]

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.

4. Exercise for the sound [l]

Little lady Lilly lost her lovely locket,

Lucky little Lucy found the lovely locket.

Lovely little locket lay in Lucy's pocket,

Lazy little Lucy lost the lovely locket!

5. Exercise for the sound [æ]

A black fat and sad and mad

cat sat at that hat

And that's Jack's hat

And Jakc 'hat's black

And Jack's mad as that black and fat and sad cat!

6. Exercise for the sounds [l] and [m]

A maid named Lady Marmalade

made mainly lard and lemonade.

M'lady lamely never made

a well-named, labelled marmalade.

7. Exercise for the sound combination [wa]

Swan swam over the pond,

Swim swan swim!

Swan swam back again-

Well swum swan!

8. Exercise for the sounds [f] and [p]

I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's mate,

And I'm only plucking pheasants' cause the pheasant plucker's late.

I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son,

And I'm only plucking pheasants till the pheasant pluckers come.

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Famous tongue twisters

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. 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?

16. A longer tongue twister

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better

17. Some shorter tongue twisters

Ed had edited it.

Listen to the local yokel yodel.

Any noise annoys an oyster but a noisy noise annoys an oyster more.

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