# Favorite Tongue Twisters

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 9, 1999, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691 "1999-09-09T19:23:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/41 "2001-06-18T05:02:45Z")

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As one flea fly flew up the flue, the other flea fly flew down

She sells sea shells by the sea shore

Four fluffy feathers on a fiffer-feffer-feff

Silly Sammy Slick sipped six sodas and got sick sick sick

Thanks to the brilliant Dr. Seuss!

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**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/42 "2001-06-18T05:22:55Z")

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Six sick sailors sighted seven slowly sinking ships.

Peggy Babcock

Anyone remember that episode of _Pinky and the Brain_ with the tongue twisters?

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**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/43 "2001-06-18T06:14:26Z")

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**GingerOfTheNorth** –  
This is the version I grew up with:

A flea and a fly in a flue  
Were trapped, so what could they do?  
“Let us flee!” said the fly  
“Let us fly!” said the flea  
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Peace,  
TN\*hippie

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**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/44 "2001-07-15T05:49:52Z")

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I saw this today while researching something else and remembered there was a post on the same subject. It’s tongue twisters in eighty-seven languages.

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>
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**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/45 "2001-07-15T06:02:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \*  
> \*\*Salvaging yet another thread from the pruning-room floor.  
> ::bump:: \*\*

Black bugs have black blood.  
I dare you…

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**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/46 "2001-07-15T06:32:12Z")

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I like some of the Japanese tongue twisters (hayaguchi-kotoba, literally fast mouthed words)

Tokyo tokkyo kyoka-kyoku kyou kyuukyo kyoka kyakka.

It’s some bureaucratic language about “the Tokyo patent approval bureau disapproves an application.”

There’s also some cool hayaguchikotoba like “O o ou o…” darn it, I can’t remember it.

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**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-tongue-twisters/7691/47 "2001-07-15T09:42:26Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pickman’s Model \*  
> \*\*Lyrics to an old song from World War I:
> 
> Sister Susie’s sewing shirts for soldiers,  
> Such skill at sewing shirts our shy young sister Susie shows;  
> Some soldiers write epistles, say they’d sooner sleep in thistles  
> Than the salty short-sleeved sorts of shirts our sister Susie sews.
> 
> Try that one fast six times. \*\*

This must be the origin of the variant I learned from a book as a child and have never forgotten:

Susie sewed Sam’s short soldier shirts

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