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Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter.

Meaning: A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.

Language: English

Literally: Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter.

Category: Tricky

Origin: From a 19th-century rhyme by American writer Carolyn Wells.

More tongue twisters — Tricky

  • Бабин біб розцвів у дощ, буде бабі біб у борщ. (Babyn bib roztsviv u doshch, bude babi bib u borshch.) — A bilabial 'b / bib / bor' drill that ends in a very Slavic splash of borscht.
  • Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
  • Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal. — A relentless run on the 'tr' sound.
  • Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz. — The German 'f' / 'sch' staple.
  • Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa. — A beloved 'c' / 'p' rhythm trap.
  • 坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた (Bōzu ga byōbu ni jōzu ni bōzu no e o kaita) — A sustained 'b' and long-vowel drill — bōzu/byōbu/jōzu demand precise mouth control.

More English tongue twisters

  • Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
  • How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
  • The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…

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