גנן גידל דגן בגן, דגן גדול גדל בגן. (Ganan gidel dagan bagan, dagan gadol gadal bagan.)
Meaning: A 'g / d / n' reshuffle — the same three consonants rearrange in every word.
Language: Hebrew
Literally: A gardener grew grain in the garden; tall grain grew in the garden.
Category: Tricky
Origin: A well-known Hebrew tongue twister taught to schoolchildren.
More tongue twisters — Tricky
- ยักษ์ใหญ่ไล่ยักษ์เล็ก (Yák yài lâi yák lék) — A tonal 'yak / yai / lai / lek' drill that hops across Thai tones in four short beats.
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- 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.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
- Ехал Грека через реку, видит Грека — в реке рак. (Yekhal Greka cherez reku, vidit Greka — v reke rak.) — A rolling 'r/k' drill where Greka, reku and rak keep trading the same two consonants.
From our untranslatable words
- Cafuné — The tender act of running your fingers through someone's hair — an intimate gesture of lo…
- Shinrin-yoku — Immersing yourself in the atmosphere of a forest — soaking up its calm through all your s…
- Waldeinsamkeit — The serene, faintly mystical feeling of being alone in the woods, at peace with nature.