Tongue twisterTricky
Mandarin
Mandarin吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。(Chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí, bù chī pútao dào tǔ pútao pí.)
Meaning: A 'pú/tǔ/pí' drill with reversing logic — the negations flip the meaning as the tongue trips.
Literally: Eat grapes without spitting out grape skins; not eating grapes, spit out grape skins.
Origin: A classic Mandarin twister that drills bilabial stops and the tonal contrast.
More Mandarin tongue twisters
- 黑化肥发黑会挥发；灰化肥发灰会挥发。(Hēihuàféi fā hēi huì huīfā; huīhuàféi fā huī huì huīfā.) A 'hēi/huī/huì/fā' four-tone minefield — the tones alone change every meaning.
- 红鲤鱼与绿鲤鱼与驴 (Hóng lǐyú yǔ lǜ lǐyú yǔ lǘ) lǐ, lǜ and lǘ differ only by vowel rounding and tone — nine syllables that all collapse t…
- 八百标兵奔北坡，炮兵并排北边跑。(Bābǎi biāobīng bēn běipō, pàobīng bìngpái běibian pǎo.) A pure b-versus-p drill, separating Mandarin's unaspirated b from its aspirated p.
- 四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。(Sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí.) A pure sì/shí tone drill — the two numbers are near-identical and the tones swap each tim…
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