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O peito do pé de Pedro é preto.

Meaning: Five 'p' words in a row, with the vowels shifting underneath each one.

Language: Portuguese

Literally: The top of Pedro's foot is black.

Category: Warm-up

Origin: A short Portuguese classic, usually the first twister taught to children.

More tongue twisters — Warm-up

  • Ząb, zupa zębowa; dąb, zupa dębowa. — Drills the nasal vowels ą and ę, which only differ from plain a and e by the nasal hum.
  • Packa pappas kappsäck. — Three words, six hard k and p stops, and almost no vowel variety to rest on.
  • なまむぎ なまごめ なまたまご (Nama mugi, nama gome, nama tamago) — A nimble warm-up for the Japanese 'na / ma / ge' syllables.
  • Pablito clavó un clavito, ¿qué clavito clavó Pablito? — A bouncy drill on the 'cl' cluster.
  • 赤パジャマ黄パジャマ茶パジャマ (Aka pajama, ki pajama, cha pajama) — A rapid-fire drill on colour words; the syllable shift from aka/ki/cha trips the tongue b…
  • Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. — A bouncy 'co' drill — the word order and meaning flip with each repetition.

More Portuguese tongue twisters

  • A aranha arranha a rã. A rã arranha a aranha. — Contrasts the soft single r of aranha against the hard rolled rr of arranha — one letter…
  • O rato roeu a roupa do rei de Roma; a rainha com raiva roeu o resto. — An unstoppable 'r' trill drill — every key word begins or ends with the Portuguese r.
  • Um tigre, dois tigres, três tigres tristes triscam trigo num trigal. — A 'tr' cluster drill that adds a sad adjective to make the alliteration worse.
  • O papa papava o papo do pipo; o pipo papava o papo do papa. — A perfectly palindromic 'p' construction that reverses meaning when you swap the nouns.

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