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Ząb, zupa zębowa; dąb, zupa dębowa.

Meaning: Drills the nasal vowels ą and ę, which only differ from plain a and e by the nasal hum.

Language: Polish

Literally: Tooth, tooth soup; oak, oak soup.

Category: Warm-up

Origin: A short Polish warm-up that isolates the two nasal vowels learners most often flatten.

More tongue twisters — Warm-up

  • 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.
  • Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico. ¿Con qué pico pica papas Pepe Pecas? — A bouncy 'p' cluster that accelerates with the question at the end.

More Polish tongue twisters

  • W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. — The opening of a poem by Julian Tuwim, now Poland's most-quoted tongue twister — the cons…
  • Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami. — Six words, almost no vowels — a single noun phrase that non-Polish speakers find impossib…
  • Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego. — Every word starts with k, and król/Karol/korale/koloru keep re-ordering the same handful…
  • Czy rak trzyma w szczypcach strzęp szczawiu? — Four different Polish sibilant clusters — trz, szcz, strz, szcz — in a single short quest…

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