Tongue-twisters

Tongue-twisters are phrases or sentences which are hard to speak fast, usually because of alliteration or a sequence of words with very similar sounds. Tongue-twisters help develop speech skills and improve pronunciation. To get the full effect of tongue-twisters you should repeat them several times, as quickly as possible, without stumbling or mispronouncing.

Exercise 5. Practice reading the following tongue-twister quickly and distinctly. Underline the words that are pronounced according to the first type of reading.

My dame has a lame tame crane,

My dame has a crane that is lame,

Let my dame’s tame crane

Feed and come home again.

A dame – дама; lame – хромой; tame – ручной; a crane - журавль

Type 2 – a vowel in a closed syllable

A closed syllable is a syllable which ends in a consonant, for example: pea-nut. According to the 2^nd type of reading the English vowels are pronounced in the following way:

a [ æ ] flag o [ ɒ ] doll i hip

[ ɪ ]

e [ e ] bed u [ ʌ ] bus y myth

Exercise 6. Practice reading the words.

a [ æ ] has, cat, plan, man, ant, ham, pants, grab, fat, flat, black, mad, that, tram, Jack;

e [ e ] men, bet, belt, set, get, met, melt, pet, rest, let, send, lend, mend, bed, dentist;

o [ ɒ ] dog, fog, fox, box, ox, got, hot, pot, lost, golf, frog, drop, sock, lock;

u [ ʌ ] bus, cup, cut, run, mud, muddy, dull, puff, must, fun, hunt, hunter, plug, trust;

i [ ɪ ] fill, did, miss, pick, till, split, stick, hit, mix, fix, milk, brick, kilt, kill, trick;

y [ ɪ ] gym, myth, cyst, lynx, system, symbol, gypsy, hymn;

Exercise 7. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Drag, mug, risk, lamp, butter, top, red, silk, help, luck, nod, hand, hip, event, suffer, crack, tell, clock, jog, under, flag, settle, win, fund, kiss, net, nanny, grumble, tent, insist, stuck.

Exercise 8. Read the words and underline those with the indicated sounds.

[ æ ] black, made, fat, fate, scat, tone, race, tag.

[ ʌ ] busy, boy, bus, butter, tube, but, music, cut, fun, honey.

[ ɒ ] pot, block, ton, nod, doggie, coal, frost.

[ əʊ ] dog, pony, knock, sock, lone, drop, problem, nosy.

[ e ] let, time, be, see, get, set, live, tock, spend, spent.

Exercise 9. Practice reading the following tongue-twister quickly and distinctly. Underline the words that are pronounced according to the second type of reading.

Betty Botter bought some butter. But, she said, This butter’s bitter!

If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.

So, she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter,

And she put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter.

So, ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.

Exercise 10. Practice reading the words in pairs.

[ e ] - [ æ ] [ I ] - [ i: ]

men - man slip - sleep

ten - tan fill - feel

led - lad lick - leak

pen - pan did - deed

pet - pat fit - feet

send - sand mill - meal

bed - bad sit - seed

said - sad ship - sheep

met - mat chip - cheap

Exercise 11. Read the words and define the type of reading. Transcribe the words, do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Lake, sip, attend, risk, later, attack, song, nice, tax, baby, construct, me, grab, tape, mile, depend, bucket, fist, nose, date, gang, golf, resist, grace, bug, sane, chess, frost, dad.

Exercise 12. Read and translate the text. Define the type of reading of the vowels in the italicized words.