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.