(Try saying that even once quickly to see just how hard it is.)
In German I would say it’s:
“Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid.”
Any suggestions in other languages? I speak fluent Portuguese, but my Brazilian wife hasn’t tought me any tongue twisters yet. (Why does that sound vaguely sexual?)
Yeah, I was going to say that one. I can’t say it more than three times without screwing up, unless I say it it very slowly.
But just the other day, for some reason I thought of it and gave it to my son: “I have a challenge for you. I bet you can’t say ‘toy boat’ five times fast.”
“Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,
A clip drape shipshape tip top sock.
Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,
But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.
None of your fantastic slack swap slop
From a slap dash flash cash haberdash shop.
Not a knick knack knitlock knockneed knickerbocker sock
With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock.
Not a supersheet seersucker ruck sack sock,
Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock
Off a hodge-podge moss-blotched scotch-botched block.
Nothing slipshod dirp drop flip flop or glip glop
Tip me to a tip top grip top sock.”
When I took theater class in high school, the teacher would have us warm up each day with tongue-twisters. “Unique New York” was one of them, as was “red leather yellow leather.” Now that is a pain in the ass to say.
I can’t blab such blibber blubber!
My tongue isn’t made of rubber!
Seriously my tongue is slooooooowwwww. I can’t even say that sixth sheik one slowly. I have to stop after every word. And that’s why I’m not a rapper.
I’ve read Fox in Socks too, Osiris. NOW is your tongue numb? Games Magazine once ran a tongue-twister contest, inviting readers to compete for the grand prize: their tongue-twister engraved on a silver tray.
The entries included: Cinnamon Synonym
Ripe white wheat reapers reap white wheat right!
and**
Brock Blake’s black bike’s back brake bracket block broke!
** But the grand prize winner was: Shep Schwab shopped at Scott’s Schnapps Shop;
One shot of Scott’s Schnapps stopped Schwab’s watch.
A reader later wrote in with another tongue-twister by Dr. Seuss (from Oh Say, Can You Say?: If you like to eat potato chips
And chew pork chops on clipper ships
I suggest that you chew
A few chips and a chop
At Skipper Zipp’s Clipper Ship
Chip Chop shop.
As for tongue twisters in other languages, the first Book of Lists included one from the African language Xhosa: Iqaqa laziqikaqika kwaze kwaqhawaka uqhoqhoqha
meaning, “The skunk rolled down and ruptured its larynx.”