Encourage your child to try these English tongue twisters

English is not the mother tongue for most of us in India. Learning a new language should feel like an adventure, not another boring class. Tongue twisters are a great way to make speaking English easy and interesting for your kids. The right way to get started is to let them speak the line slowly and distinctly, so that each word is heard clearly. Once they are comfortable, increase the speed till they are flowing over it easily. Here are five of tongue twisters for your little learners to try.  

Betty bought some butter but the butter was bitter, so betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better.  
This is a tough tongue twister for kids, their parents and just about anyone! If kids can say it fast they will be able to master master ‘bs and ‘ts forever. ‘The Butter that Betty Bought’ was a poem by Carolyn Wells and published as part of the collection called ‘The Jingle Poems’ in 1899. You can still buy that book online.  

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? As much wood as a wood chuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood!  
This was actually a song by Robert Davis in 1902 for American actress Fay Templeton. It was part of a Hollywood musical movie “The Runaways.” Davis thought it would be fun to test how the performers manage to go through ‘woo’ and ‘ch’ sounds. Must have been tough on the singers!  

Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.  
That’s one terrible line to manage quickly. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, identified this line as the toughest tongue twister. It’s nonsense and it’s really tough!  

The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep is sick.  
The Guinness Book of World Records ranked this as the toughest tongue twister for kids in English in 1974. The Cambridge Dictionary’s Twitter account officially called it the toughest again in 2020. See if your child can tackle it.  

Knox in box. Fox in sox.  
‘Fox in Socks’ was a book by Dr. Seuss, the famous nonsense verse writer for kids. If you are looking for tongue twisters for kids, this book is a must.