Μια πάπια μα ποια πάπια; μια πάπια με παπιά στα παγωμένα νερά. (Mia papia ma pia papia; mia papia me papia sta pagomena nera.)

Meaning: A 'pa/pi/pag' drill — the near-identical syllables pile up while the image stays perfectly clear.

Language: Greek

Literally: A duck — but which duck? A duck with ducklings in the frozen waters.

Category: Tricky

Origin: A well-known modern Greek tongue twister used to drill the π sound in rapid speech.

More tongue twisters — Tricky

• Mit sütsz, kis szűcs? Tán sós húst sütsz, kis szűcs? — An 'sz / s / ts' sibilant duel — Hungarian's two close s-sounds collide in every word.
• Ibsens ripsbusker og andre buskvekster. — An 'sb / sk / busk' cluster trap that jams the tongue between the bushes.
• Rødgrød med fløde. — The legendary soft-d and rounded 'ø' test — the phrase Danes use to spot a non-native ins…
• Nồi đồng nấu ốc, nồi đất nấu ếch. — A tonal drill that swaps vowels and tones (đồng/đất, ốc/ếch) while the rhythm stays stead…
• גנן גידל דגן בגן, דגן גדול גדל בגן. (Ganan gidel dagan bagan, dagan gadol gadal bagan.) — A 'g / d / n' reshuffle — the same three consonants rearrange in every word.
• ยักษ์ใหญ่ไล่ยักษ์เล็ก (Yák yài lâi yák lék) — A tonal 'yak / yai / lai / lek' drill that hops across Thai tones in four short beats.

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