Episode 140: Tongue Twisters From Peter Piper to Woodchuck Chucks

Listen to this Episode of "Coffee with Gringos" here or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher.

Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige:  And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we're going to be talking all about tongue twisters, and tongue twisters are basically specific words or phrases that when we put them together, they're really difficult to say. In Spanish, we might call them “trabalenguas”. And so often these are similar words which like follow one another, but they can have different syllables, they can have alliteration, which means you use the same letter for all the words to create a certain sound. And so, in general, these are pretty difficult because of the pronunciation that we have to do for these. So, while they're really fun to look at and practice, they're also great for us to improve our pronunciation, to prepare ourselves to be talking a lot. So, Paige and I thought this would be very important to talk about today and fun as well. So, listeners, as always, if you get lost, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. So, Paige—tongue twisters. These are fun and kind of wacky parts of English. They exist in all languages but there's some certain ones that from childhood you start learning and kind of use as you grow up. So, what are your experiences with tongue twisters yourself?

Paige: Yeah, I definitely think I remember them mostly in kind of the playground where you would challenge kids to say it and who could say it faster and who could say it without messing up and a lot of these, you're built to fail. A lot of them are very hard to say because, as you said, they're alliteration so they're very similar sounds right after each other and it used to be a fun game of just who could say it the fastest without messing up and the mess-ups were the best part because people would say some funny stuff. I haven't done it in years so it'd be interesting for me to try to say them. I hope that I could do it successfully.

Ian: It will be a good challenge for us. So just looking at some of these classic ones, these ones are definitely ones that I remember doing very often as a child. This first one I will attempt to say is, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers, Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”

Ian: Alright, that sounded pretty good.

Paige: I did it. I was sweating.

Ian: Good job. Not bad for the first one. A lot of “p” s in there. That’s that alliteration we're talking about—repeating that same letter for all the words. So, this is a really common theme and with the ones we're going to be reading today but good job. You kicked it off in a good way. Alight.

Paige: Well, I will say as a child, the goal was to say it as fast as you could. So, you'd have to like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck…” and you'd have to just keep saying it so you're bound to mess up. And just so our listeners know, these tongue twisters often don't make sense. They're just trying to put words that sound very similar together in a sentence so, you're like “Who's Peter Piper? and “What’s up with these pickles?”

Ian: Yeah, that's a good point to make. It's more just for pronunciation practice or for the words. There's not much meaning to a lot of these. Well good. Okay, you kicked it off great so I think now it's my turn to attempt to one and another one that I think is a classic one is the classic “woodchuck” tongue twister. So, alright, I'll give it a whirl. “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”

Paige: Nice, crushing it.

Ian: Not easy, but again, we see that concentration.

Paige: Full concentration.

Ian: Oh yeah, full concentration in reading these. That's true and by the end of today, we're going to have to attempt some very quickly, very fast, like you mentioned before, so we'll start warming up and by the end, hopefully, we can read them off pretty rapid fire.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: Nope. It's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Paige: Yeah, so the “woodchuck” one was very common. The next one that's very common, which I always really had a lot of trouble pronouncing, I think it's just the sound is it is hard to pronounce in a row. “She….” I’m already getting nervous. “She sells seashells by the seashore.” It needs all my concentration because they sound so similar.

Ian: It's so true. That “s” and then the “sh” sound can really be difficult when you're saying them together so that, “she sells seashells by the seashore.” Yeah, not easy. Awesome, let's move on to the next one. We have another one. This one, I don't know if I remember saying a lot as a kid. Alright so let's take a whirl at, “Betty bought a bit of butter, but the butter Betty bought was bitter. So, Betty bought a better butter, and it was better than the butter Betty bought before.”

Paige: Nice.

Ian: Wow. We're learning we can do these a little better than I think we originally thought.

Paige: I just have post-traumatic stress from doing them as a child. Someone does it well and then you're next and then you really mess up and you're like, “Shit.”

Ian: Oh yeah, that's a lot of pressure on you as a kid.

Paige: And I mean, as we all know too, pronunciation, especially when it's very difficult, is kind of a mind game, right? And so, once you're already thinking you're going to mess up and then you mess up, it's hard to overcome that mess up so every time you keep saying it, you always mess up on that word in the sentence.

Ian: It's easy to trick your brain that way to think if you're going to screw it up, you're going to go ahead and screw it up. So, it takes full focus like we've been saying.

Paige: That's true. So, these ones are kind of fun ones that you can play games of but, you know, as Ian said, they’re really good practice because you're really practicing that specific sound that we use a lot from that the “s”s and the “b”s and the “p”s and the “w”s. So, it's good for pronunciation, but it's kind of a fun way to learn it. Moving on to some more practical ones that you would maybe say in a sentence, these are some shorter just full sentences, not more rhymes or poems—tongue twisters. This first one, “He threw three free throws.” So, it's kind of an “f” all in a row which is hard to do, but that's a sentence you would actually maybe say if you were watching a basketball game and he's throwing free throws and he threw three of them. So, you could actually, in real life have to say that sentence.

Ian: Exactly. This one's a bit more practical and this one I think would be especially tough for some of our listeners who are native Spanish speakers because that “th” sound is always difficult. That's something I work on with all of my students pronunciation-wise, is really focusing on that “th” the “tongue between the teeth” sound. “He threw three free throws.” That's not easy. So, again these ones are a bit more practical and at the top of the podcast, I mentioned how a lot of these are used for maybe people who are professional speakers or politicians or singers, performers, these kinds of shorter more practical phrases can really help them to warm up their voices, to stretch out their lips and their mouth so that they can prepare themselves to be talking for an extended period of time. So, the next ones we read are going to be a little bit more for that use I think than for the fun, see if I can get through the whole phrase without messing up kind of thing that we just explained. So, another pretty practical one that is used for practicing, and again, a shorter one is, “If you notice this notice, you will notice that this notice is not worth noticing.” So, we're kind of having a variation of repeating that word “notice.”

Paige: The next one is “Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely.” So, very similar sound. Some of these would be weird to say, but you could say “nine-night nurses nursing” so it's a little of an exaggeration of you actually saying all those words together but you would often say some of those words together because there's no way getting around it.

Ian: Exactly. Another one that's a classic one, I've actually heard a lot of performers use to practice warming up is “I like New York, unique New York. I like unique, New York.” So, this one's more of a, I think it's really getting you to move your jaw around, to really use a lot of different sounds and things that really get your mouth moving and bigger and, again, really getting yourself prepared to be talking for a while. A good warm-up for your mouth.

Paige: Yeah, true. And I think in English, as a lot of our listeners know, there are a lot of words that sound the same but are spelled different. We have quite a few of those and so it gets particularly tricky when you have to say them together in a sentence. So, this one for instance, “Which witch is which?” So, “which” is asking a question, “which” is an evil woman. What is it, “bruja” in Spanish? Like a Halloween costume, and then is “which” is again is asking a question.  So spelled different, but has the same exact pronunciation. So, when it's put together and is ended, it's not only hard to say but it's like, what?

Ian: It seems as though you're saying the exact same word just over and then when you read the actual sentence itself, you see that we're really changing each word doesn't even. It's not even the same one. So, these are ones where like we said, you have got to really pay attention, you got to really tune in to what you're saying, which words you're using. But, again, these are, in my opinion, these are fun ways to practice your pronunciation, especially those “th” sounds that we were talking about earlier. And again, it's a fun way to sort of get your mouth moving, to get more accustomed to especially the English language, but I guess whatever language you're learning, you could apply it in the same way. So, I try to encourage my students to practice these at home and we do these sometimes in class. So, again, maybe not the most important part of the language to learn but it's a really fun and kind of unique way to train yourself in that sense.

Paige: So, since we've gone over a few of them, should we try rapid-fire to do the first two and see how we go?

Ian: Let's do it. Okay, you kick us off.

Paige: Oh no, okay. So, just so everyone remembers, I did the first one really well. But as we increase the speed, I know that it will change very rapidly. Okay: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”

Ian: Alright. Not bad, not bad. That was pretty clean all the way through.

Paige: The “peck” really got me.

Ian: Okay, let's see if I can do the same for “woodchuck” example from earlier. Okay, “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”

Paige: Very good. See, that one feels very rhythmic, it's kind of makes you want to dance a little.

Ian: Yeah, so some of these have a sing-song feel to them as well so, yeah. So, as we mentioned here are just some examples we talked about today. There are hundreds more that we could go into but we'll leave that up to you listeners to find and practice on your own. So again, practice your best, and it'll be a great way to improve your pronunciation. So, as always, again thank you for listening, and go ahead and go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Ian: “Coffee with Gringos” officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile”. And that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to rate sure to rate, review and share us. 

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     wacky (adjective): funny or amusing in a slightly odd or peculiar way.

a.     The tongue twisters we have been saying today are mostly wacky.

2.     playground (noun): an outdoor area for children to play in at usually at a school or park.

a.     The playground is where I learned most of the English tongue twisters that I know.

3.     to kick off (phrasal verb): to start.

a.     Let’s kick off today’s episode with some background information on the subject.

4.     bound to (phrasal verb): be certain or destined to something.

a.     We are bound to hear from them sooner or later.

5.     to give it a whirl (idiom): to try something.

a.     Even though he had never skied before, John decided to give it a whirl.

6.     to crush (verb): to do something well.

a.     She has been crushing lately in her weekly performances.

7.     post-traumatic stress (noun): a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress as a result of something severe.

a.     They needed to have years of treatment due to post-traumatic stress disorder from the war.

8.     to screw up (idiom): to mismanage or fail at something.

a.      He really screwed up the meeting with the director earlier today.

9.     free throw (noun): a shot opportunity with only one player shooting at the basket in basketball.

a.     Michael Jordan practiced thousands of free throws over the course of his career.

10.  tune into (something) (phrasal verb): to pay very close attention to something.

a.      Listening to music really helps me tune into my creative side.