O rato roeu a roupa do rei de Roma; a rainha com raiva roeu o resto.

Meaning: An unstoppable 'r' trill drill — every key word begins or ends with the Portuguese r.

Language: Portuguese

Literally: The rat gnawed the King of Rome's clothes; the queen in rage gnawed the rest.

Category: Warm-up

Origin: The most famous Portuguese tongue twister, known across Portugal and Brazil.

More tongue twisters — Warm-up

На дворе трава, на траве дрова. (Na dvore trava, na trave drova.) — A short but nasty 'tr/dr' blend — the consonant clusters that trip up every learner of Ru…
四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。(Sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí.) — A pure sì/shí tone drill — the two numbers are near-identical and the tones swap each tim…
De kat krabt de krullen van de trap. — A 'kr' cluster drill — Dutch consonant pileups that beginners approach with dread.
Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
Sex laxar i en laxask. — A short 'x/lax/ks' crunch — Swedish's 'x' sounds like 'ks', which doubles the trap.
Capra neagră sare piatra, piatra-i neagră, capra-i albă. — A rapid 'c/pr/n' alternation that gains speed — and the colour-swap at the end trips the…

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.

Loading the full interactive collection…