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Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.

Meaning: Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is what makes it break down.

Language: English

Literally: Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.

Category: Fiendish

Origin: Built by MIT psychologists in 2013 as a deliberate stress test; participants often gave up rather than finish it.

More tongue twisters — Fiendish

  • Четыре чёрненьких чумазеньких чертёнка чертили чёрными чернилами чертёж. (Chetyre chyornenkikh chumazenkikh chertyonka chertili chyornymi chernilami chertyozh.) — Seven consecutive words built on 'ch' — Russian's ч in every stressed position with barel…
  • 红鲤鱼与绿鲤鱼与驴 (Hóng lǐyú yǔ lǜ lǐyú yǔ lǘ) — lǐ, lǜ and lǘ differ only by vowel rounding and tone — nine syllables that all collapse t…
  • 앞 집 팥죽은 붉은 팥 풋팥죽이고, 뒷집 콩죽은 햇콩 단콩 콩죽이다. (Ap jip patjugeun bulgeun pat put-patjugigo, dwitjip kongjugeun haetkong dankong kongjugida.) — Stacks Korean's aspirated p and k against the final consonants, so every word ends where…
  • 저 분은 백 법학박사이고 이 분은 박 법학박사이다. (Jeo buneun Baek beopakbaksa igo, i buneun Bak beopakbaksa ida.) — Baek and Bak are a single vowel apart, and 법학박사 piles four stop consonants into one title.
  • Czy rak trzyma w szczypcach strzęp szczawiu? — Four different Polish sibilant clusters — trz, szcz, strz, szcz — in a single short quest…
  • Wij smachten naar achtentachtig prachtige nachten. — Five words carrying the Dutch guttural 'cht', the sound foreigners find hardest to produc…

More English tongue twisters

  • Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
  • How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
  • 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.

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