List of tongue-twisters

Tongue twisters in languages other than English

Bulgarian

• Крал Карл и кралица клара крали кларинети от кралските кларинетисти.
• Петър плет плете, през три реда преплита. Плети, Петре, плета.

Catalan

• Setze jutges d'un jutjat menjant fetge de penjat.
  translation: Sixteen judges from a court eating hanged man's liver.

Chinese (Cantonese)

• ming5 ding2 bing1 ding1 ting4 ding6 ting3 (酩酊兵丁停定聽)
  translation: The drunken soldier stopped and listened.
• fu6 fu5 fu4 fu1 fu6 fu3 fu2 (傅婦扶夫赴富府)
  translation: Fu's wife carried her husband to the rich man's mansion.
• yap9 sat9 yim6 sat1 gam6 gan2 gap7 dzai3, gwat9 gai1 gwat9 gwat7 gwat9 gai1 gwat9 (入實驗室襟緊急掣，掘雞掘骨掘雞骨)
  translation: Go to the laboratory and press the emergency button, dig for the chicken, dig for the bone, and dig for the chicken bone.

Chinese (Mandarin)

• xī shī sǐ shí sì shí sì (西施死時四十四)
  translation: Xi Shi (a famous woman) died at age 44.

Czech

• Strč prst skrz krk.
  Translation: Stick a finger through your throat.
  Note that this sentence has no vowels!
• Nesnese se se sestrou.
  Translation: He doesn't get on with his sister.
• Roli lorda Rolfa hrál Vladimír Leraus.
  Translation: The role of lord Rolf was played by VL.
• Nenaolejuje-li koleje Julie, naolejuji je já.
  Translation: If Julie doesn't oil rails, I will oil them.

Dutch

• De koetsier poetst de postkoets met postkoetspoets.
  Translation: The coachman cleans the stagecoach with stagecoach cleaner.
• De kat krabt de krullen van de trap met drie droge doeken.
  Translation: The cat scratches the woodcurls of the stairs with three dry cloths
• De knappe kapper kapt knap, maar de knappe knecht van de knappe kapper kapt knapper dan de knappe kapper kappen kan.
  Translation: the clever barber cuts hair well, but the clever helper of the clever barber cuts hair more clever that the clever barber can cut it.

Esperanto

• Ĉu ŝi scias se ĉi-scene la sklavo ŝtelas la sceptron?
  Translation: Does she know if the slave steals the sceptre during this scene?

Estonian

• Pagari piparkook (repeated).
  Translation: Baker's ginger biscuit.
• Musta lehma saba valge lehma taga, valge lehma saba musta lehma taga (repeated).
  Translation: Black cow's tail behind a white cow, white cow's tail behind a black cow.
• Kabli klubi (repeated).
  Translation: Club of Kabli.
• Asjaajaja ja jaamaülem (repeated, sobriety test).
  Translation: Procurator and stationmaster.
• Jüriöö ülestõus (jokingly used to determine if a non-native speaker has mastered the difficult accented vowels)
  Translation: the Jüriöö upraisal, in the night of April 23, 1343 peasants in Northern Estonia rebelled against their Danish overlords and cleansed much of the country of the foreign rulers.
• Kuulilennuteetunneliluuk.
  Translation: The hatch of the tunnel of ballistic trajectory.

Finnish

French

• La roue sur la rue roule; la rue sous la roue reste.
  Translation: The wheel on the road rolls; the road under the wheel stays.
• Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien de chasse.
  Translation: A hunter who knows how to hunt has to know how to hunt without its hunting dog.
• Le pipe au papa de Pape Pie pue.
  Translation: Pope Pius's dad's pipe stinks.
• Si ces saucissons sont bons, ces saucissons-ci sont aussi bons.
  Translation: If these sausages are good, these sausages here are also good.
• Kiki était cocotte et Coco concasseur de cacao. Kiki la cocotte aimait beaucoup Coco le concasseur de cacao. Or un marquis caracolant, caduc et cacochyme, conquis par les coquins quinquets de Kiki la cocotte, offrit à Kiki la cocotte un coquet caraco kaki à col de caracul. Quand Coco le concasseur de cacao comprit qu'un marquis caracolant, caduc et cacochyme conquis par les coquins quinquets de Kiki la cocotte, avait offert à Kiki la cocotte un coquet caraco kaki à col de caracul, il conclut « Je clos mon caquet, je suis cocu ! »
• Panier piano. [repeated]
  Translation: Basket piano.
• Les chausettes de l'archiduchesse sont sèches, archi sèches.
  Translation: The archduchess's socks are dry, very dry.
• Si mon tonton tonds ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu.
• Je veux et j'exige du jasmin et des jonquilles.
• Natacha n'attacha pas son chat qui s'échappa.
• Un dragon gradé dégrade un gradé dragon.
• Je suis un original qui ne se désoriginalisera jamais.

German

Greek

• Μια πάπια, μα ποια πάπια; Μια πάπια με παπιά!
  Translation: A duck, but which duck? A duck with ducklings!

Hebrew

• גנן גידל דגן בגן, דגן גדול גדל בגן
  Translation: A gardner grew a cereal in the garden, a large cereal grew in the garden.
• שרה שרה שיר שמח
  Translation: Sara sings a happy song.
• נחש נשך נחש
  Translation: A snake bit a snake
• אישה נעלה נעלה נעלה נעלה את הדלת בפני בעלה
  Translation: A nobel woman put on a shoe, shut the door in her husband's face.
  This is a game with the conjugation rules that allow to construct identical words (in spelling and pronunciation) with different meanings. Such twisters exist in arabic too.

Hungarian

• Öt török öt görögöt dögönyöz örökös örömök között.
  Translation: Five Turks are massaging five Greeks amid everlasting delights.
• Mit sütsz kis szűcs? Sós húst sütsz kis szücs.
  Translation: What are you cooking little furrier? You are cooking salted meat, little furrier.
• Te tetted e tettetett tettet, te! Te tettetett tettek tettese, te!
  Translation: You! Did you do this false act? You! You are the doer of false acts!
• Két pék két szép kék képet kér.
  Translation: Two bakers are asking for two nice blue pictures.
• Nem minden fajta szarka farka tarka csak a tarka farkú szarka farka tarka.
  Translation: Not all kinds of magpies have medley tails, only the medley-tailed kind of magpie has medley tails.
• Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért.
  (this is the longest hungarian word, kind of untranslatable) Aproximate translation: For the impossibility of you (plural) committing multiple acts of desecration.

Korean

• Ganjanggongjang gongjangjang-eun Jang gongjangjang-igo doenjanggongjang gongjangjang-eun Gang gongjangjang-ida. (간장공장 공장장은 장 공장장이고 된장공장 공장장은 강 공장장이다.)
  Translation: The manager of the soy sauce factory is Manager Jang and the manager of the soy paste factory is Manager Gang.
• Gyeongchalcheong soechangsal oecheolchangsal, geomchalcheong soechangsal ssangcheolchangsal (경찰청 쇠창살 외철창살, 검찰청 쇠창살 쌍철창살)
  Translation: The police headquarters' iron window bar (has) single-layer iron bars; the public prosecutor's office's iron window bar (has) double-layered iron bars.

Latin

Marathi

• Kacha papad, pakka papad [repeated]
  Translation: Cooked lentil wafer, raw lentil wafer.
• chataila tachni tochli
• LuLi mule baaLe
• chinchaachi chatni (the 2nd and 4th 'ch' sounds are pronounced as 'ts', something difficult for a non-Marathi speaker.)

Norwegian

• Djerv bjergdvergbjerk
  Translation: Brave dwarf mountain birch
• Ibsens ripsbusker og andre buskvekster
  Translation: The redcurrant bushes of Ibsen and other bushy trees.

Polish

• Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszynie.
  Translation: A beetle sounds in the canes in Szczebrzeszyn (town's name). The most known Polish tongue-twister, first line from a short poem by Jan Brzechwa, Poland's most known kids' poet.
• Pójdźże, kiń tę chmurność w głąb flaszy.
  Translation: Come on, drop your sadness into the depth of a bottle.
• Szedł Sasza suchą szosą, suszył sobie spodnie.
  Transalation: Sasza (name) was going along a dry road while drying his trousers.
• Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami.
  Translation: table with broken out legs.
• Wyindywidualizowałem się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu i byłem tym w pełni usatysfakcjonowany
• Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego.
  Translation: King Charles bought for Queen Charlotte coral-coloured corals (the last three words in English work almost as well as in Polish).
• Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz
  fictious but possible full name in Polish, from the comedy "Jak rozpętałem Drugą Wojnę Światową" where it was used to confuse German officer.
• Przyszedł Herbst z pstrągami i słuchał oszczerstw z wstrętem przeszukując otwory w strzelnicy.

Portuguese

• Três pratos de trigo para três tigres tristes. (repeated).
  Traslation: Three plates of wheat for three sad tigers.
• O rato roeu a rolha da garrafa de rum do rei da Rússia.
  Translation: The mouse gnawed the cork of the bottle of rum of the king of Russia.
• O rato roer roía e, a Rosa Rita Ramalho, do rato a roer se ria!
  Translation: The mouse gnaw gnawed and, Rosa Rita Ramalho, of the mouse that gnaws laughs!
• A pia pinga, o pinto pia, pinga a pia, pia o pinto,o pinto perto da pia, a pia perto do pinto.
  Translation: The sink drips, the young chicken chirps, drips the sink, chirps the young chicken, the young chicken close to the sink, the sink close to the young chicken.
• O Papa papa o papo do pato.
  Translation: The Pope eats the stomach of the duck.
• Pedro tem o peito preto. Preto é o peito de Pedro. Quem disser que o peito de Pedro não é preto, tem o peito mais preto que o peito de Pedro.
  Translation: Peter has the black chest. Of black color is the chest of Peter. Who says that the chest of Peter is not black, has the chest more black than the chest of Peter.
• - Pedreiro da catedral está aqui o padre Pedro? - Qual padre Pedro? - O padre Pedro Pires Pisco Pascoal. - Aqui na catedral tem três padres Pedros Pires Piscos Pascoais. Como em outras catedrais.
  Translation: - Mason of the cathedral is the priest Peter here? - Which priest Peter? - the priest Peter Pires Pisco Pascoal. - Here in the cathedral it has three priests Peters Pires Piscos Pascoais. As in other cathedrals.

Russian

• Шла Саша по шоссе и сосала сушку. (Sasha was coming down a highway and sucking on a bread-ring.)
• На дворе трава, на траве дрова. Не руби дрова на траве двора. (In the yard there is grass and on the grass there is firewood. Don't chop firewood on the grass of the yard.)
• Карл у Клары украл кораллы, а Клара у Карла украла кларнет (). (Karl stole corals from Klara and Klara stole a clarinet from Karl.)
• Шёл Грека через реку, видит Грека - в реке рак. Сунул Грека руку в реку, рак за руку Греку цап. (Greka (a Greek) was riding across a river, and saw that there was a crawfish in the river. Greka put his hand in the river and the crawfish bit his hand.)

Spanish

• El arzobispo de Constantinopla se quiere desarzobispoconstantinopolitanizar y el arzobispo que lo desarzobispoconstantinopolitanice buen desarzobispoconstantinopolitanizador será.
  Translation: The archbishop of Constantinople does not want to be the archbishop of Constantinople, and the archbishop who un-archbishop-of-Constantinople-izes him will be a good un-archbishop-of-Constantinople-ifier.
• Tres tristes tigres tragan trigo en un trigal.
  Translation: Three sad tigers swallow wheat in a wheat field.
• La madre y la hija van a misa. La madre pisa paja; la hija paja pisa.
  Translation: "The mother and her daughter are on her way to attend a mass. The mother steps on straw; the daughter on straw steps." Devised to make say "la hija pasa pija" (the daughter passes pija; the last word being either an insult or a colloquial word meaning 'penis').

Swedish

• Sex laxar i en laxask.
  Translation: Six salmons in a salmon-box.
• Packa pappas kappsäck.
  Translation: Pack daddy's suitcase.
• Sju sjuka sjöman sköttes av sju sköna sjuksköterskor.
  Translation: Seven sick seamen were cared for by seven beautiful nurses.
  • (Variant): Sju sjösjuka sjömän på skeppet Shanghai skölde sju skjortor i sjön.
    Translation: Seven seasick seamen on the ship 'Shanghai' washed seven skirts in the sea.

• Plocka pepparkorn i en kopparpanna.
  Translation: to pick peppercorns in a copper pan.
• Västkustskt.
  Translations: in the manner pertaining to the West Coast. (the double occurrence of 'st' followed by consonant clusters containing hard k's make this very awkward to pronounce correctly).
• Får får får?
  Translation: Does sheep give birth to sheep?

Serbian

Xhosa

• Iqaqa laziqikaqika kwaze kwaqhawaka uqhoqhoqha
  Translation: The skunk rolled down and ruptured its larynx.

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