Lily ladles little Letty's lentil soup
Five words in a row start with L, and most of them have a second L inside. It is a pure L tongue twister with a catch: between the L sounds sit quick T and D taps that pull the tongue into the same spot.
Lily ladles little Letty's lentil soup.
More tongue twisters for the same sounds
- Lucy's parrot repeats every word really loudly.
- Rolling river rafts rarely reach the lower lake.
- Clara rolled the rear wheel along the rural road.
- Larry rarely lets his loyal readers rely on rumors alone.
- The world's largest library rarely lends rare literary records.
- The lawyer reread the long report and underlined every unclear rule.
Other famous tongue twisters for these sounds
Where to breathe
- Lily ladles little Letty's
- lentil soup.
Light L, dark L and the taps between
English has two kinds of L. At the start of a word, as in “Lily” and “ladles”, the L is light: the tongue tip touches the ridge behind the upper teeth and the rest of the tongue stays low. At the end of a syllable, as in “little” and “lentil”, the L is dark: the back of the tongue rises too. This line makes you switch between the two again and again.
The other trap is the T and D. “Ladles”, “little”, “Letty's” and “lentil” all put a T or D right before or after an L, and both are made in almost the same place. At speed the tongue stops lifting cleanly, so “little” turns into “lil” and “ladles” into “lales”. Another slip is to swap the words: “Letty's little lentil” in place of “little Letty's lentil”.
If your native language has only one L, this line also shows whether you can make the dark L at all. Without it, “little” and “lentil” sound thin and unclear.
How to learn it
Start with “little lentil”. Say it slowly and feel the tongue: tap for the T, then stay on the ridge and let the L sound come out around the sides. In American English the T in “little” is a soft tap, but it is still there.
Then add the start, “Lily ladles”, which is the easy half. Keep the L sounds light and the vowels open. Take one breath before “lentil soup” at first, then try to say the whole line on one breath.
A whisper test works well here. Whisper the line and listen for every T and D. If “little” sounds like “lil”, the tap is gone. Once the whisper is clear, say it at full voice three times in a row, then speed up.
Questions about this tongue twister
- What does ladle mean in this tongue twister?
- To ladle is to serve soup with a ladle, a deep spoon with a long handle. So the picture is simple: Lily is pouring lentil soup into little Letty's bowl.
Keep practicing
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.