Tongue twisterTricky
English
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Meaning: A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
Origin: An American children's tongue twister dating to 1902; the woodchuck is a groundhog.
More English tongue twisters
- 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…
- 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.
- 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.
- Unique New York. Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
Explore another collection: Idioms
Colorful expressions from dozens of languages, with their word-for-word translations.
- pull someone's leg To joke or tease someone by telling them something untrue.
- Mad as a hatter Completely eccentric or unhinged.
- To steal someone's thunder To take credit for another's idea or upstage their big moment.
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