Tongue Twisters: English Pronunciation Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Are you ready to exercise your English pronunciation

muscles? Let's do it. Welcome to today's fun English pronunciation lesson. I chose four

tongue twisters today that includes sounds that are difficult for English learners. A

lot of tongue twisters, and a tongue twister is just a sense that's difficult to say, it

twists your tongue. A lot of tongue twisters include sounds that are difficult to say in

that sentence, but they're not really difficult in daily conversation. For example, Sally

sells seashells by the seashore. This s and sh sounds are difficult in that sentence,

but in daily conversation, a lot of English learners don't have difficulties with those

sounds. So today, I chose four plus one bonus that includes sounds like l, r, vowels, th,

and some other sounds that are actually difficult for English learners, so I hope that we'll

have a little bit of fun together today, but also it will be a practical lesson to help

your pronunciation improve. Okay. Are you ready to warm up those pronunciation

muscles and start with the first tongue twister? The first one includes the l, r, and w sounds.

I'm going to try my best to say these, let's say it. A loyal warrior will rarely worry

why we rule. A loyal warrior will rarely worry why we rule. So here we have the r sound r,

rule, and the l sound, loyal, and the w, warrior. So your tongue and your lips are really active

here. You're saying, l, r, w. So it really is an exercise for your lips, for your tongue,

for your whole mouth, all of those muscles. I'm gonna say this slowly, I want you to try

to repeat exactly with me. Try to repeat it as I say it slowly, and then we're going to

speed it up. It will probably test my speaking skills as well, but we'll say it together,

and I hope that it will help to test you. A loyal warrior will rarely worry why we rule.

A loyal warrior will rarely worry why we rule. Are you ready to speed it up? I need to practice

myself. Alright, let's say it fast. A loyal warrior will rarely worry why we rule. A loyal

warrior will rarely worry why we rule. The thing that's helping me to say this, and it's

clearly, is really to say the first letter of each word, almost emphasized. A loyal warrior

will rarely worry why we rule. Even for me, my tongue and my lips are getting a little

bit mixed up, but it's a good practice. So I hope that you can say this sentence a couple

times yourself. After this lesson is over, try to say it out loud, maybe even record

yourself, have a little fun. Let's go to the second tongue twister.

The second tongue twister includes the th sound and the f. It is he threw three free

throws. A free throw is an action in a basketball game, so let's try to say this slowly together

and make sure that when you say the th, this is a good th practice, your tongue is coming

out of your mouth. He threw. Make sure your tongue is coming out, and when you say the

f, watch my teeth. Free throws. so my teeth are really on that bottom lip. Free. And then

when we say the th, your tongue is coming out. Throws. So let's say the sentence slowly

together and I hope that you'll be able to speed it up with me. I hope I'll be able to

speed it up as well. Let's do it. He threw three free throws. He threw three free throws.

He threw three free throws. He threw three free throws. That's a little difficult for

me as well. All right, let's go to number three. The third

tongue twister includes the th sound, and also some vowels, so we need to make sure

that your tongue is coming out again using that th correctly, but also that the vowels

are accurately formed. All right, let's say it together. I thought, I thought of thinking

of thanking you. So here at the end of this sentence, it's a little bit tricky because

we have thinking and thanking, so your tongue and your lips are really going to be in this

specific position for thi, i, you can see it's a little bit high, a little bit elongated,

thi, ink and tha, a, it's a little bit wide here for that a sound. Thinking of thanking

you, and of course, it makes sure that your tongue is doing the th sound correctly, so

let's try to say this together. I thought, I thought of thinking of thanking

you. Let's say it a little bit faster. I thought ,I thought of thinking of thanking you. I

thought, I thought of thinking of thanking you. I thought, I thought of thinking of thanking

you. I thought, I thought I'm thinking of thanking you. I hope that you're saying the

th and those vowels. I thought, thinking, thanking. I hope that you're saying this correctly,

go ahead and practice this yourself as much as you'd like, and let's move on to the next

one. Are you ready for the fourth tongue twister? This tongue twister includes a couple important

sounds. It's going to include a th, it's going to include a lot of vowel sounds, and it's

also going to include a specific American English pronunciation. You might have heard

of the Flap T. This is when a t is between two vowels.

For example, the word bitter, bitter. It's spelled with a t, but it sounds like a d when

Americans say it, bitter, bitter. So if you'd like to practice your American English pronunciation,

this is the tongue twister for you. It's a little bit long, so I'm going to read it from

my phone, but I hope that you can hear it clearly and practice with me. Are you ready?

Betty Botter had some butter, but she said, "This butter's bitter. If I bake this bitter

butter, it would make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter, that would make my

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

it in her batter and the batter was not bitter. So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit

of better butter. I made it. That was a little slow, but I want to really emphasize a couple

of sections of this that you can practice yourself.

Let's talk about that first sentence. It is Betty Botter had some butter. Betty Botter

had some butter. All of these words include t's, but they are flap t's, so they're going

to change to sound like a d. Betty Botter had some butter. This is a key element of

American English pronunciation. There's another phrase in the middle of this tongue twister

that I want to draw your attention to. It is "but a bit of better butter." You hear

a lot of d's here, but you don't see any. So where are they coming from? The first one

is, "But a." But a. The word is "but", but that t in the middle there, it's between two

vowels even though they're separate words. So this is going to happen a second time.

A bit of, but a bit of, but a bit of, but a bit of better butter. We have a lot of flap

t's here, and it's a good chance to practice your pronunciation.

Let's say part of this slowly together, and I want you to practice with me. Betty Botter

bought a bit of better butter. Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter. Betty Botter

bought a bit of better butter. I hope that all of those t's changed to d's, and you're

also exercising those vowel sounds. Are you ready to go onto the bonus one? This one is

a little bit crazy grammatically. It actually is correct grammatically, but it's crazy.

Let's look at it in this bonus tongue twister, you're gonna hear that th sound a lot. As

you can tell, a lot of English learners have challenges with the th, so that's why I chose

these. So you're going to hear the word "thought." Thought. Your tongue needs to come out of

your mouth, and there needs to be some air coming out as well.

Thought, thought. You're going to see the word thought as a verb and as a noun. I thought,

this is a verb, I am thinking. I thought is the past tense. I thought, but you're going

to see it also as a noun. I thought a thought. So you might say, "I had a strange thought

yesterday." Oh, this is a noun, a thought, but you're going to see it here as a noun

and a verb, so it's going to sound a little crazy, nut if you break it down step by step,

it'll make a little more sense. Here, we're just focusing on the pronunciation. I'm gonna

say it and read from my phone. I hope you can try to read it with me as well. I thought

a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. If the thought

I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so much.

Oh, I love this one just because this crazy grammar make something in my heart happy because

who came up with this? I love it. I hope you can say this with me slowly.

We're going to say it one more time. I want you to repeat with me and practice that th

sound. Are you ready? I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought

I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought,

I wouldn't have thought so much. Great work today exercising those pronunciation muscles.

I want to know, do you know any other tongue-twisters? Let me know in the comments, and let me know

which one of these was the most challenging to you. I hope that you can practice it again

and again, and just have fun with English. Thanks so much for learning with me, and I'll

see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next

step is to download my free Ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Competent English Speaker. You'll

learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently. Don't forget to subscribe to

my YouTube channel for more free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.