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Hard tongue twisters

The hardest tongue twisters in English, for adults: short ones that trip almost everyone at speed, long classics like Peter Piper and Betty Botter, and everyday sentences packed with hard sounds. Start slowly and speed up only while every sound stays clean.

The hardest short tongue twisters

Short, but almost nobody gets them right three times fast. Similar sounds keep swapping places, and every repeat makes it harder. Say each one three times in a row.

  1. The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.
  2. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.
  3. Peggy Babcock, Peggy Babcock, Peggy Babcock.
  4. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
  5. Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather.
  6. Truly rural, truly rural, truly rural.
  7. Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
  8. Selfish shellfish.
  9. Eleven benevolent elephants.
  10. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
  11. Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.
  12. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
  13. She sees cheese.
  14. Ed had edited it.
  15. Fresh fried fish, fish fresh fried, fried fish fresh, fish fried fresh.
  16. Thank the other three brothers of their father's mother's brother's side.
  17. Wasps' nests, wasps' nests, wasps' nests.
  18. Greek grapes, Greek grapes, Greek grapes.
  19. Three free throws.
  20. Good blood, bad blood.

Long hard tongue twisters

The famous long ones. Getting to the end without a single slip is the real test.

  1. 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?
  2. 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.
  3. She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
  4. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
  5. Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.
  6. I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so much.
  7. Whether the weather be fine or whether the weather be not, whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot, we'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.
  8. A tutor who tooted the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor, “Is it harder to toot or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
  9. If one doctor doctors another doctor, does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does he doctor the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?
  10. Of all the felt I ever felt, I never felt a piece of felt that felt the same as that felt felt, when I first felt that felt.
  11. Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, with stoutest wrists and loudest boasts, he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
  12. Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines she sits, and where she sits she shines.
  13. A noisy noise annoys an oyster, but a noisier noise annoys an oyster more.
  14. Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!
  15. Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared wrongly in a rural brewery.

Hard tongue twisters for adults

Not nursery rhymes: ordinary sentences packed with hard sounds. They sound like real speech, so they make a good warm-up before a talk or a call.

  1. The world's oldest maps mark coasts, cliffs and islands, but the experts still can't name the lands drawn at the far edges.
  2. He wants the costs, she wants the dates and the hosts want lists and charts before the first rehearsal starts.
  3. Our regular train rarely runs late, but the rural line runs late so regularly that riders rarely rely on it.
  4. Leo's relentless rival loved to rewrite the rules, so Leo rarely relaxed, rarely rested and really rarely lost a round.
  5. Beth thanked the three thoughtful authors, though none of them thought their thick third book was worth the thanks.
  6. The busy shop assistant shows shoppers six shirts, seven scarves and a dozen shiny zippers, and sells them all by sunset.
  7. Victor wanted a van with wide windows, but the vendor's vans were either very worn or worth far more than Victor's whole savings.
  8. Greg quickly typed the code, double-checked the date, printed the ticket and got to the gate ten minutes early.
  9. The famous pianist practiced every phrase of the final piece, polished the fast passages and played the whole program in a packed hall.
  10. She grasped the facts, checked the prompts and fixed the scripts.

How to practice tongue twisters

  1. Slowly, syllable by syllable, with exaggerated precision: every ending, every consonant.
  2. Normal pace. Say it two or three times, perfectly clean. If a sound blurs, go back one step.
  3. Louder, as if someone is listening from across the room. Same pace, same clarity.
  4. Faster, but only up to the speed where it stays clean. Three times in a row without a stumble.
  5. Delivery: full voice, with emotion, as if on stage. Then take the next tongue twister.

Speed is a by-product of clarity. Move up a step only when you sound perfect on the current one.

Questions about hard tongue twisters

What is the hardest tongue twister in English?
There's no official winner, but two are named most often. In 1974, the Guinness Book of World Records listed “The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick” as the hardest in English. In 2013, MIT researchers reported that many volunteers simply stopped talking when they tried “Pad kid poured curd pulled cold.” Both are short: what makes a tongue twister hard is not length but similar sounds that swap places.
Why are some tongue twisters so hard to say?
Your mouth plans the next sounds while it's still saying the current ones. When similar sounds alternate, like S and SH or R and L, those plans get mixed up and the sounds swap. Repeats make it worse: “toy boat” is easy once and hard five times fast.
How do you say hard tongue twisters fast?
Don't start fast. Say it slowly with exaggerated precision, then raise the pace in small steps and go back a step as soon as a sound blurs. Speed comes from clean movements, not from rushing.
Are tongue twisters good for adults?
Yes, as a warm-up. Actors, presenters and speakers use them before going on, because they wake up the lips and tongue and sharpen consonants. They polish sounds you already have; if a sound doesn't come out at all, start with a speech therapist.

More tongue twisters

More in the article: How to speak slower without sounding robotic

Practice with a timer

In DramaLab, the speed ladder is an exercise: it gives you tongue twisters one by one, walks you up the five steps and keeps time. No sign-up needed.

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