Tongue twisters for actors and voice actors
Actors and voice actors use articulation drills to wake up the lips, tongue, and jaw before a performance or session. This set covers the classic warm-ups plus targeted drills for crisp consonants.
Practise these 34 twisters
Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!
Easy · sounds: s, sw, w · traditional
Blend the 's' straight into rounded lips for every 'sw', and close your lips firmly for the 'm' in swam, swim, and swum.
Say it 3 times fast
Time three clean repetitions.
Clean repetitions
Aim for 5 in a row without a slip.
Record and listen back
How to practise
- Warm up your breath and jaw first: a few yawns and lip trills.
- Over-articulate each twister slowly, then bring it back to natural speech at speed.
- Finish with a line from your actual script so the warm-up carries into the read.
All tongue twisters for actors and voice actors, easiest first
- 1.
Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!
Easy · sounds: s, sw, w · traditional
Blend the 's' straight into rounded lips for every 'sw', and close your lips firmly for the 'm' in swam, swim, and swum.
- 2.
The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue.
Easy · sounds: l, p, th, t · traditional
Exaggerate each place as you name it: lips together for 'p', tongue between the teeth for 'th', and tongue tip up for 't' and 'l'.
- 3.
How now, brown cow?
Easy · sounds: ow, n, br, k · traditional
Open your jaw wide at the start of each 'ow' and round your lips at the end, giving all four words the same full vowel.
- 4.
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?
Medium · sounds: p, k · traditional
Release each 'p' with a small puff of air, then relax your lips straight away so the plosives stay crisp instead of piling up.
- 5.
She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
Medium · sounds: s, sh · traditional
Keep your tongue tip just behind your top teeth with relaxed lips for 's', then pull the tongue slightly back and push your lips forward for 'sh'.
- 6.
Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Medium · sounds: r, l · traditional
Touch your tongue tip to the ridge behind your top teeth for each 'l', and pull it back without touching anything for each 'r'.
- 7.
Unique New York, you know you need unique New York.
Medium · sounds: n, y, k · traditional
Finish the 'k' of unique cleanly before New, and let your jaw and lips move freely on every 'oo' vowel.
- 8.
Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat.
Medium · sounds: t, b · traditional
Close your lips fully for the 'b' and shape a clear 'oh' vowel in boat so it doesn't slide into 'boyt' as you speed up.
- 9.
Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
Medium · sounds: b, g, r · traditional
Press your lips together for every 'b', and lift the back of your tongue for the 'g' in buggy so it doesn't turn into 'bubby'.
- 10.
A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.
Medium · sounds: p, k, f · traditional
Alternate the lip-closed 'p' and the back-of-tongue 'k' cleanly, especially in copper coffee, where the two sit side by side.
- 11.
Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
Medium · sounds: l, th, w · traditional
Contrast the voiced 'th' in leather, weathered, and weather with the quick 't' in wetter and better, putting the tongue between the teeth only for 'th'.
- 12.
Red leather, yellow leather.
Medium · sounds: r, l, th · traditional
Pull the tongue back for 'r', touch the gum ridge for 'l', and slide the tip forward to the teeth for the voiced 'th' in leather.
- 13.
Gig whip, gig whip, gig whip.
Medium · sounds: g, w, p · traditional
Lift the back of your tongue twice for gig, then round your lips for whip and close them firmly on the final 'p'.
- 14.
Good blood, bad blood.
Medium · sounds: g, b, bl, d · traditional
Finish every 'd' fully before the next 'b' so good blood doesn't smear into 'goo blood'.
- 15.
Lovely lemon liniment.
Medium · sounds: l, m, n · traditional
Lift your tongue tip to the gum ridge for every 'l' and 'n', and close your lips only for the 'm' sounds.
- 16.
A flea and a fly in a flue were imprisoned, so what could they do? Said the fly, 'Let us flee!' 'Let us fly!' said the flea. So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Medium · sounds: fl, f, l · traditional
Keep the 'fl' blend tight in flea, fly, flue, flee, flew, and flaw, and let only the vowel change from word to word.
- 17.
Aluminum, linoleum, aluminum, linoleum.
Medium · sounds: l, m, n · traditional
Stress a-LOO-mi-num and li-NO-lee-um clearly, letting the tongue tip handle every 'l' and 'n' while only the lips close for 'm'.
- 18.
Within the theater, thirty thespians breathe, then think, then thunder.
Medium · sounds: th · SceneDub original
Voice the 'th' in within, the, breathe, and then, and keep it voiceless in theater, thirty, thespians, think, and thunder.
- 19.
Mother's brother breathes smoother than father's other brother.
Medium · sounds: th, br · SceneDub original
Every 'th' here is voiced, so keep a gentle buzz at your tongue tip throughout and don't let it harden into 'd' or soften into 'v'.
- 20.
Drop a pebble in a puddle, blow a bubble in a bottle.
Medium · sounds: p, b, d, t · SceneDub original
Close your lips for 'p' and 'b', tap your tongue tip for 'd' and 't', and end pebble, puddle, bubble, and bottle on a clear 'l'.
- 21.
Precisely pronounced plosives produce pleasantly polished performances.
Medium · sounds: p, pr, pl · SceneDub original
Keep each 'p' crisp but controlled, letting out only a small puff of air so it would not pop on a microphone.
- 22.
Twelve trained trumpeters tried twenty tricky tunes.
Medium · sounds: tw, tr, t · SceneDub original
Round your lips straight after the 't' in twelve and twenty, and pull the tongue back after the 't' in trained, trumpeters, tried, and tricky.
- 23.
Tilly ticked the tiny tickets; Tommy tucked the tidy tags.
Medium · sounds: t, k, g · SceneDub original
Alternate the tongue tip for 't' with the back of the tongue for 'k' and 'g', keeping each contact quick and light.
- 24.
Patty took a cake to Kate's patio.
Medium · sounds: p, t, k · SceneDub original
This cycles through lips, tongue tip, and back of the tongue ('p', 't', 'k'), so keep each release light and your jaw loose.
- 25.
Vivian's violin wobbled while Walter's viola wailed.
Medium · sounds: v, w · SceneDub original
Touch your top teeth to your lower lip for each 'v', and use rounded lips with no teeth contact for each 'w'.
- 26.
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 she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter, and she put it in her batter, and the batter was not bitter. So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.
Hard · sounds: b, t · traditional
The consonants barely change, so let the vowels do the work: butter, bitter, better, and batter each need their own distinct vowel.
- 27.
Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. If Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, see that thou, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb.
Hard · sounds: th, s, thr · traditional
Place your tongue tip lightly between your teeth for each 'th' and pull it back behind them for each 's', so thistle and sifter never blur.
- 28.
Many an anemone sees an enemy anemone.
Hard · sounds: m, n · traditional
Break anemone into a-NEM-o-nee and enemy into EN-e-my, closing your lips only for 'm' and lifting your tongue tip for every 'n'.
- 29.
Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.
Hard · sounds: m, n, j · traditional
Anchor the stresses, i-MAJ-in, me-NAJ-er-ee, MAN-ij-er, and keep each soft 'j' quick and light.
- 30.
Mix a box of mixed biscuits with a boxed biscuit mixer.
Hard · sounds: ks, b, sk · traditional
Treat every 'x' as a quick 'ks', and keep the final 't' in mixed (mikst) and boxed (bokst).
- 31.
Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades, blunderbusses, and bludgeons, balancing them badly.
Hard · sounds: b, br, bl · traditional
Alternate 'br' and 'bl' deliberately, with the tongue pulled back for 'r' and touching the gum ridge for 'l', while the lips stay firm on every 'b'.
- 32.
The builder measured the widths, lengths, and depths of the sixth and seventh paths.
Hard · sounds: th, ths, ksth · SceneDub original
Finish each cluster in full, 'dths' in widths, 'ngths' in lengths, 'pths' in depths, and 'ksth' in sixth, instead of dropping the 'th'.
- 33.
Giggling jugglers juggle jiggling jellies.
Hard · sounds: g, j · SceneDub original
Start each 'j' with the front of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and each 'g' with the back of your tongue, so giggling and jiggling stay different.
- 34.
The ghost's hosts boast the most toasts.
Hard · sounds: st, sts · SceneDub original
Close a real 't' between the two 's' sounds in ghost's, hosts, and toasts instead of letting it vanish into one long hiss.
More tongue twister sets
Warmed up? Put it to work with a free voice acting script or dub a scene online.
Frequently asked questions
What's an easy for actors tongue twister to start with?
Try "Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!" Say it slowly three times before speeding up.
What's the hardest for actors tongue twister here?
"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 she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter, and she put it in her batter, and the batter was not bitter. So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter." The consonants barely change, so let the vowels do the work: butter, bitter, better, and batter each need their own distinct vowel.
How many times should I repeat a tongue twister?
Aim for five clean repetitions in a row at a comfortable speed, then three times fast. A few minutes a day is enough for a warm-up; stop if your jaw or voice feels strained.