Tongue-twisters for practising pronunciation

 

Tongue twisters to practise English pronunciation

There those thousand thinkers were thinking. /θ/think, thousand, /ð/ those, there

The other three thieves got through. /θ/ thieves, /ə/ other /i/ three, theives /ð/ other

Elizabeth’s birthday is on the third Thursday of this month. /z/ Elizabeth /θ/

Come quite quickly! /k/ come /kw/ quite

Quietly /kw/

Six slimy snails sailed silently. /s/

Haven’t you heard about the/her horrible homework? /h/

Why not wait a while? /w/

Six sausages with sauce, Susan. /s/

Joan’s jealous of John’s yellow yo-yo ./j/ yellow, yo-yo, /dʒ/ john, Joan, jealous.

Shine, sunshine, shine on sun. /ʃ/shine, /s/ sun.

Richard checked the chicken in the kitchen. /tʃ/ Richard, chicken, /k/ kitchen.

Three sheep, sipping liquid. /θ/ three, /ʃ/ sheep, /s/ sipping /kw/ liquid.

Don’t doubt, don’t dawdle./d/

Ten tons, ten towns, triple trouble. /t/ /tr/

Have you heard the word about the third bird? /ɜ/

Put your foot in your boot, swoop, shoot and do a loop. /ʊ/ put, foot /u:/ boot, loop

You’re kind and you have a fine mind. /aɪ/ kind, fine, mind

Bath buns and butter, that's better. /b/

I'd like to say I'll stay today. /ai/ /ei/

Some new tongue-twisters

So should Celia shout songs?
Peter put purple pepper on his porridge.
Beryl bought very bad bread

Pronunciation practice

This week in class we've done two tongue-twisters. They help you practise the transitions between sounds.

Sheila thinks Seville is special

Pay special attention to the link from is to special. Spanish speakers tend to say especial.

Jenny's jealous of John's yellow yo-yo.

Here there are two cricial sounds; the j in John and jealous and Jenny and the semi-vowel y in yellow and yo-yo.