How it Started
It started on a Saturday with my children. We were sitting around, challenging each other with tongue twisters we knew. I was winning, but it was an unfair fight. I’m older. I have decades of “Peter Piper” and “Woodchuck” archival data stored in my brain. They were relying on raw processing power…I was relying on pure old-man cache.
Once we got bored with the classics, the game shifted a bit. We started to invent brand new tongue twisters based on objects in the room. The lamp. The banana on the counter, the dog.
Making a sentence that is hard to say is an art that requires a bit more than just jamming consonants together. Your creative muscles (and vocabulary) really starts to flex.
Then that same old thought popped into my head:
“I bet AI can help me make some great twisters.”
It did. In fact, AI has amazing tongue twister superpowers. So without a real reason other than horseplay, I started building a tongue twister generator on Word.Studio. Here is what I learned.
The Mechanics of a Tangled Tongue
To build a tool that generates tongue twisters, you first have to define what actually causes the tongue to twist. It is usually a specific type of conflict between the brain’s planning and the mouth’s motor skills.
When I sat down to design the prompt for this tool, I had to break down the “code” of a good word stumble. I learned it usually relies on four variables:
- Alliteration: The low-hanging fruit. Repetition of starting sounds (She sells seashells).
- Consonant Clusters: Groupings that require rapid, precise tongue gymnastics (Black bug bleeds black blood).
- Phonetic Trickery: This is the high-level stuff. It involves alternating between similar but distinct sounds, like ‘s’ and ‘sh’. The brain tries to predict the pattern, anticipates the wrong movement, and you end up hissing instead of speaking.
- Rhythm: A good twister has a cadence that encourages speed. If the rhythm is clunky, you slow down and get it right. If the rhythm flows, you speed up.. then crash.
Designing the Inputs
An AI, left to its own devices, tries to be helpful and clear. A tongue twister is inherently unhelpful and usually unclear. To get the engine to produce something usable, I couldn’t just ask for “hard to say sentences.” I needed to give the user control over the complexity. I also wanted the tool to be fun and easy. I settled on three simple levers that can customize the result.
1. The Anchor (Word or Subject)
The best twisters are grounded in a concrete image. Abstract concepts don’t land as well as “Slippery Snakes” or “Fuzzy Ferrets.” You need a noun or a theme to act as the center of the alliteration. Peter Piper’s classic dilemma is built around his fabled “pickled peppers”. These are the anchor.
2. The Length
How long should a tongue twister be? There is no rule…but the amount of words definitely changes the nature of the challenge. I built in a selector that allows you to change the length.
- Short (2–4 words): These are sprints. Usually, the speaker is challenged to repeat the phrase “5 times real fast”
- Medium (5–10 words): The standard sentence structure. A good average all-around tongue twister running-time.
- Long (10–20 words): These longer twisters are endurance tests. The challenge here isn’t just the sounds, but maintaining the rhythm without running out of breath or forgetting the word sequence.
3. The Texture (Style)
This was the optional layer that made the tool interesting. A “Playful” twister feels different from a “Creepy” one. There is a selector where you can define your own custom “tone”. Here are a few examples:
- Playful: Giggling ghosts gobbled green grapes.
- Creepy: Silent shadows slid slowly south.
- Futuristic: Robot roosters reset radar ranges.
The Tongue Twister Test
We found that the AI struggles slightly with the concept of “nonsense.” It wants the sentence to make logical sense. The best tongue twisters live in a strange space. They are grammatically correct but logically absurd. Gargling garden gnomes giggle greatly is perfect because it paints a picture, even if that picture is nonsense.
How It’s Going
There is a practical application. Verbal dexterity muscles can be built by reciting them. Actors, poets, and speakers often use tongue twisters to warm up their articulators before a pitch or a recording. Language learners can use tongue twisters in their non-native tongue to practice problematic patterns. (Do you see what I did there?)
A tongue twister wakes up the connection between thought and speech. Here is a clip with Jack Black sharing his favorite warm-up tongue twisters.
So not only are tongue twisters fun, but they can also be practical for vocal exercises and language learning.
Or, you can just use it to beat your kids in a competition. That is a totally valid use case.
Now let’s revisit some classics.
Classic Tongue Twisters
Here are 20 of the most enduring English tongue twisters.
The Big Three
1. Peter Piper
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?
2. The Woodchuck
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood
As a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
3. She Sells Seashells
She sells seashells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure.
So if she sells seashells on the seashore,
Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.
The Short & Repetitive (Speed Drills)
4. Toy Boat
Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.
(Repeat 5 times fast without saying “Toy boyt”.)
5. Red Leather, Yellow Leather
Red leather, yellow leather.
(Repeat indefinitely.)
6. Unique New York
Unique New York.
You know New York.
You know you need unique New York.
7. Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers
Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
(Often extended to: Rubber baby buggy bumpers, rabbit baby buggy bumpers.)
8. Irish Wristwatch
I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch.
The Narrative Twisters
9. Betty Botter
Betty Botter bought some butter,
But she said the butter’s bitter.
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter will make my batter better.
So ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.
10. Fuzzy Wuzzy
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?
11. The Big Black Bug
The big black bug bit the big black bear,
But the big black bear bit the big black bug back!
12. Susie the Shoeshine
I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop.
Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.
13. The Skunk
A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
But the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
14. Doctor Doctor
If one doctor doctors another doctor,
Does the doctor who doctors the doctor
Doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors?
Or does he doctor the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?
The “Sibilant” Challenges (S/Sh Sounds)
15. The Sixth Sick Sheik
The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
(Historically cited by Guinness World Records as the hardest tongue twister in English.)
16. Clam Cream
How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
17. Swan Swim
Swan swam over the sea,
Swim, swan, swim!
Swan swam back again,
Well swum, swan!
The “Th” & “W” Workouts
18. Weather the Weather
Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
19. Thirty-Three Thieves
Thirty-three thirsty thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.
20. Moses Supposes
Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
But Moses supposes erroneously,
For nobody’s toeses are posies of roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
Make Custom Tongue Twisters with AI
If you are in critical need of a personalized tongue twister and are short on time and creative endurance, you are in luck. The Tongue Twister tool is live on Word.Studio.
Truly, to try this tool is to train your tongue to twist and turn through tough text without tripping, so take time to type a topic and test its talent today.
Go give it a twist.
