Long before anyone wrote a speech therapy programme, grandmothers were teaching children to say chacha ne chachi ko chandi ki chamach se chatni chakhai as fast as they could and laughing when it fell apart. Tongue twisters survive because they work: they give a child a reason to say the same sound many times, in a game, with nobody correcting them.
This page collects tongue twisters in English and in Roman Urdu, sorted by the sound they practise, so that you can pick the ones that match what your child is working on. It also sets out how to use them, which matters more than which ones you choose, and when a child should not be doing them at all. Please read that last part before you start.
How to use them
Slow first. The point is not speed. The point is saying the target sound correctly many times. Say each twister slowly and clearly together, once, twice, three times. Only speed up when the slow version is clean, and even then speed is the reward, not the work.
One sound at a time. Pick the sound your child is working on, or the one you can hear is wrong, and stay with that group. A child who says “tat” for “cat” needs the K twisters, not all of them.
Five minutes a day. Daily and short beats weekly and long. In the car, at bedtime, while waiting for food. Stop while it is still fun.
Model, do not correct. If your child says it wrong, do not say “no, like this”. Say it right yourself, slowly, with a smile, and go again. Children copy far more than they obey.
Make it silly. Act them out. Use a toy as the character. Let your child make up their own, which is excellent practice in itself.
Match the sound to the age. Some sounds, especially R and the S blends, come late in most children. Pushing a four-year-old to say a perfect R is unfair and usually pointless. Speech sounds by age tells you what to expect when.
When tongue twisters are the wrong tool
If your child stammers, do not use them for speed. Ever. A child who stammers should never be pushed to talk faster, and a tongue twister race is exactly that. They can still be used slowly, as a calm, rhythmic saying game, but the moment it becomes a race, stop. The right approach for a child who stammers is in stammering in children.
If your child has apraxia, keep it to short words. A child with a motor planning difficulty finds long strings of sounds very hard and a full tongue twister can be discouraging. Use single words from the twister instead: “cat, cat, cat”, then “cat cap”, then build. Signs of apraxia of speech explains what this looks like.
If your child cannot yet make the sound at all, repeating it wrongly fifty times is practising the error. A therapist needs to teach the sound first, then you drill it. This is the single most common mistake we see with home practice.
If your child is not yet putting words together, tongue twisters are too far ahead. Work on first words and short phrases, which is a different job. See easy speech activities to do at home.
P and B: lips together
Both sounds are made by closing the lips and letting go. P is quiet, B uses the voice. Children usually get these early; the twisters are mostly for fun and for a child who muddles the two.
English
- Peter picked a pile of pretty purple pebbles.
- Big blue buckets, big brown bags.
- A proper copper coffee pot.
- Busy bees buzz by the bush.
Roman Urdu
- Pappu ke paas paanch peele patang.
- Bablu ne bade bartan mein bhindi banai.
- Pani pi, pani pi, pyare Pappu pani pi.
- Baba ki bakri bagh mein bhaagi.
T and D: tongue tip behind the top teeth
The tongue tip taps the ridge just behind the top front teeth. Urdu has two sets of these sounds, the soft dental ones as in teen and do, and the retroflex ones with the tongue curled back as in tamatar and dabba. English T and D sit somewhere between. Many children mix them up when switching languages, which is normal and usually sorts itself out.
English
- Ten tiny turtles tiptoed to the tent.
- Dirty dogs dig deep ditches.
- Two tired toads told tall tales.
- Dad did the dishes on Tuesday.
Roman Urdu
- Tota taar par, titli tehni par.
- Dada ne dudh mein daal dali.
- Teen tang wali tokri tooti.
- Dabbe mein do dane, dono daane dhundo.
K and G: back of the tongue
These are made at the back of the mouth. The classic childhood error is saying them at the front instead: “tat” for “cat”, “doat” for “goat”. If your child does this past about four, the K twisters are worth working on, but read phonological fronting in children first, because the sound usually needs teaching before drilling.
English
- Cute kittens kick cans in the kitchen.
- Go, goat, go! Get the green grapes.
- Katy cooked a cake for Kiran.
- Giggly goats gobble garden grass.
Roman Urdu
- Kaka ne kali kursi par kela khaya.
- Gol gol gubbara, gol gol gaadi.
- Kaali kaali koyal kaali raat ko kooki.
- Gudiya ne gulabi gulab ganga ko diye.
S: the snake sound
S needs the tongue tip close behind the teeth without touching, and air pushed through a narrow gap. A child who puts the tongue between the teeth produces a lisp, which is common and often outgrown, though not always. Lisps in children covers when to worry. S is also one of the sounds a child who talks very fast tends to lose, so the slow rule matters here.
English
- Sally sells seven silver spoons.
- Six sleepy snakes sat on the sunny sand.
- Sam saw seven sailing ships.
- Sister Sana sings softly on Sunday.
Roman Urdu
- Sona ne sast sabzi sadak se li.
- Saat saanp sarsabz sehra mein soye.
- Samosa, sandwich, sabz salad, sab saath.
- Sunday ko Sara ne sona sa sweater silwaya.
SH and CH: the quiet sound and the choo-choo sound
SH is S with the tongue pulled back a little and the lips pushed forward. CH is T and SH said together. Children who struggle with S often struggle with these too. The Urdu chamach twister is probably the most famous tongue twister in Pakistan and belongs here.
English
- She sells sea shells on the sea shore.
- Shy sheep shiver in the shade.
- Chubby children chew cheesy chips.
- Charlie chose a cheap chair.
Roman Urdu
- Chacha ne chachi ko chandi ki chamach se chatni chakhai.
- Sheela ne shaam ko sheesha saaf kiya.
- Chhoti chidiya chhat par chhup gayi.
- Shahid ne sheher mein shaandaar shirt kharidi.
R: the late sound
English R and Urdu R are different sounds. The Urdu one is a tap of the tongue tip, as in roti, and most children get it fairly early. The English one is made with the tongue bunched or curled without touching anything, and it is one of the last sounds English-speaking children master. A Pakistani child who says a tapped Urdu R inside English words is not making an error; they are speaking English with a Pakistani accent, which is fine. Work on R only if the sound is missing or replaced, as in “wed” for “red”. Our full guide is helping your child say the R sound.
English
- Round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.
- Red lorry, yellow lorry.
- Rabbits run rings round the rose bush.
- Rory rowed a red raft down the river.
Roman Urdu
- Roti roz Rani ne rasoi mein rakhi.
- Raja ne rangeen rumal Rehan ko diya.
- Rail ki rassi, rassi par Rafi.
- Rasheed ne raat ko rasgulla khaya.
L: tongue tip up
L is made with the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the top teeth while the sides let the sound out. Children who cannot do it often say “y” or “w” instead: “yight” for “light”. Helping your child say the L sound has the teaching steps.
English
- Little lambs leap lightly along the lane.
- Lucy likes lemons, limes and lollies.
- Lazy lions lie lolling in the long grass.
- Lily lit a little lamp.
Roman Urdu
- Lal lal laddu Lali ne liye.
- Lambi lakdi, lambi lakeer.
- Laila ne lahore mein lal libas liya.
- Lota lalkar, lalten jalkar.
Making your own
Once your child knows the game, invent twisters together using their own name, their friends, their street, their favourite food. “Hamza ne haleem Hassan ko di” is a better K twister for Hamza than anything on this page, because he will say it twenty times without being asked. Older children enjoy competing to write the hardest one. This is vocabulary work, sound work and writing work all at once, and nobody notices.
What progress looks like
Do not expect a sound to be fixed by twisters alone. What you are doing is giving a newly learned sound many chances to become automatic. Progress looks like the sound appearing correctly in the twister first, then in other words you have not practised, then in ordinary talking when the child is not thinking about it. That last step can take months and it is the one that counts. If you have been drilling for a few weeks and the sound is still absent everywhere except the twister, stop drilling and ask a therapist to look at how the sound is being made.
Fitting twisters into a week
A pattern that works for many of our families: one twister per week, chosen for the current sound. Monday and Tuesday, say it slowly together three times at bedtime. Wednesday and Thursday, the child says it alone, slowly, and you say it back. Friday, race, if racing is allowed for your child. Saturday, make up a new one together using a family name. Sunday off. Next week, a new twister for the same sound, until the sound is clean in ordinary talking, then move to the next sound on the list your therapist gave you.
Keep a note of which twisters your child has mastered. Children love seeing the list grow, and it tells the therapist exactly what has been practised at home, which makes the next session more useful. Our home practice log is built for exactly this.
If your child hears mostly Saraiki or Punjabi at home, make up twisters in that language too. The sound is the same whatever the words around it, and a child practises most willingly in the language they think in.
For the full set of activities that do not need a screen, see speech activities. And for a child who is hard to understand across many sounds rather than just one, my 4-year-old is hard to understand explains when that is a pattern worth assessing.