Improve your English pronunciation with tongue twisters.
Start with the famous Peter Piper tongue twister…
Have you ever heard of tongue twisters?
A tongue twister is kind of like a poem, actually.
But it’s just a set of sentences that are difficult for you to pronounce because of the sounds of the words and the way that the words are placed in the sentences.
You’ll see here in a minute.
Tongue twisters are an excellent way to improve your pronunciation.
It’s kind of like going to the gym and working out.
So, when you go to the gym, you’re working out your muscles and you’re making them stronger.
So, practicing tongue twisters is like going to the gym and exercising your tongue, which is a muscle as well.
So, what you’re going to want to do, is repeat tongue twisters, the same one,
until you can keep going faster and faster. So, the first time you might say it very slowly.
And then after you get more practice and more practice you’ll start to go a little bit faster, a little bit faster.
And then eventually, you’ll be able to say it very quickly.
And when you get to that point, when you can say it quickly and with good pronunciation,
then you know that you have made a major improvement in your speaking skills and your pronunciation.
If you make a mistake when you’re reading the tongue twister, don’t worry, it’s okay, it’s normal.
Just do it again, go a little bit slower. If you’re making mistakes,
then that’s just a sign that you’re going too fast, and you need to slow down and say it slower until you feel comfortable.
Once you feel comfortable, then you can increase the speed a little bit more.
And after you master a tongue twister such as this one “The Peter Piper” one,
it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to say all tongue twisters well.
You’re going to need to practice each one individually, until you master each one.
Because each tongue twister focuses on different sounds,
so you will be developing your pronunciation skills and your tongue in different ways for each different tongue twister that you do.
So, just from my personal experience, you know, I am an American,
I’m a native English speaker and tongue twisters were hard for me as well, at the beginning,
but after I said it more and more and more I got better, and then it got much easier.
So, of course it’s going to be difficult for you, but that’s okay, it’s just a way to practice your English and improve your pronunciation.
So, let’s get started. All right, so this is probably the most famous tongue twister of all time.
It’s really popular. So, I am going to start off by reading it slowly so you can really hear the pronunciation of each word.
And you should pause the video after I finish it, and try to repeat it as well.
Just start off by repeating it slowly to make sure that you have the correct pronunciation. So, let’s go:
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?
Okay, so go ahead and pause the video and repeat it for yourself.
Okay, now I’m going to go through it a little bit faster.
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?
All right, that was a little bit harder. Now, I’m going to go even faster. You can pause it if you like, to repeat it.
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?
So you see, as you go a little bit faster, the sound changes a little bit, but you’re still going to be pronouncing the words correctly for this faster speed.
Okay, now I’m going to try going really fast.
This should be your goal, to be able to do this in the future, after practicing it many times.
Of course, you will never need to talk this fast in real life, but it’s still a good exercise for your tongue and it will help you speak and pronounce words better in general, after you get to this level.
All right, so here we go:
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?
All right, so I wasn’t trying to show off or anything. I was just trying to show you what you can get to eventually,
because even for me as a native speaker, this was difficult when I first started practicing it.
Because tongue twisters are made for native speakers, they’re not really made for English students necessarily;
they’re just made for native speakers to improve their pronunciation.
All right, so this was my first video with tongue twisters.
If they’re helpful, then I’ll try to continue making more.
So feel free to give “a like” or a “comment” if you found this helpful, and if you’re going to use this to improve your English pronunciation.
Thanks for watching and have a great day.
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