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Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Meaning: A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.

Language: English

Literally: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Category: Tricky

Origin: First published in John Harris's Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation (1813), though the rhyme was circulating at least a generation earlier.

More tongue twisters — Tricky

  • Ехал Грека через реку, видит Грека — в реке рак. (Yekhal Greka cherez reku, vidit Greka — v reke rak.) — A rolling 'r/k' drill where Greka, reku and rak keep trading the same two consonants.
  • От топота копыт пыль по полю летит. (Ot topota kopyt pyl po polyu letit.) — A 'p/t' hammering that imitates the hoofbeats it describes.
  • 八百标兵奔北坡，炮兵并排北边跑。(Bābǎi biāobīng bēn běipō, pàobīng bìngpái běibian pǎo.) — A pure b-versus-p drill, separating Mandarin's unaspirated b from its aspirated p.
  • 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…
  • 네가 그린 기린 그림은 못 그린 기린 그림이고 내가 그린 기린 그림은 잘 그린 기린 그림이다. (Nega geurin girin geurimeun mot geurin girin geurimigo, naega geurin girin geurimeun jal geurin girin geurimida.) — geurin, girin and geurim rotate through nearly the same syllables with only the vowel mov…
  • Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego. — Every word starts with k, and król/Karol/korale/koloru keep re-ordering the same handful…

More English tongue twisters

  • Unique New York. — Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
  • Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
  • 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.

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