Perhaps in elementary school you’ve heard of those old English tongue twisters like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” or “Sally sells seashells down by the seashore”. Well, now it’s time to put those skills to the test – in Chinese!
Here are some hilarious, sometimes nonsensical, fun Chinese tongue twisters to try out!
1: Four is Four, Ten is Ten
Starting off a little easier, this poem might not have a lot of meaning. But, it certainly has a lot of shi!
四是四。
十是十，
十四是十四，
四十是四十，
四十四是四十四。
sì shì sì.
shí shì shí,
shí sì shì shí sì,
sì shí shì sì shí,
sì shí sì shì sì shí sì.
Four is four.
ten is ten,
fourteen is fourteen,
forty is forty,
forty-four is forty-four.
Essentially, this poem is just made up of shi with different tones. There is a longer version, though this is the main idea!
- Pear and Mud
It’s quite interesting how these two come together in this verse that utilizes ni, li, and di sounds!
树上有梨
地上有泥
风刮梨
梨落地
梨滚泥
泥沾梨。
Shù shàng yǒu lí
dì shàng yǒu ní
Fēng guā lí
lí luò dì
lí gǔn ní
ní zhān lí.
Atop the tree is a pear
On the ground is mud
wind knocks off the pear
the pear falls to the ground
the pear rolls across the mud
mud soaks the pear.
- Eating Grapes
Who knew? Have we been eating grapes correctly?
This is probably one of the most famous Chinese tongue twisters out there:
吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，
不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。
chī pú táo bù tǔ pú táo pí,
bù chī pú táo dào tǔ pú táo pí.
Eat the grapes, but don’t spit out the skin,
Don’t eat the grapes, but spit out the skin.
It’s all in good fun; continue eating as you were!
- Bird and Cat
Once upon a time, there was a bird and a cat. What could possibly go wrong?
树上一只鸟，
地上一只猫。
地上的猫想咬树上的鸟，
树上的鸟想啄猫的毛。
shù shang yì zhī niǎo,
dì shang yì zhī māo.
dì shang de māo xiǎng yǎo shù shang de niǎo,
shù shang de niǎo xiǎng zhuó māo de máo.
A bird on the tree,
A cat on the ground.
The cat on the ground tries to bite the bird in the tree,
The bird in the tree tries to peck at the cat’s fur.
- The Monk and the Mute
It’s a super funny tongue twister, unique because it actually tells a story. Try it!
打南边来了个哑巴，腰里别了个喇叭；
打北边来了个喇嘛，手里 提了个獭犸。
提着獭犸的喇嘛要拿獭犸换别着喇叭的哑巴的喇叭；
别着喇叭的哑巴不愿拿喇叭换提着獭犸的喇嘛的獭犸。
不知是别着喇叭的哑巴打了提着獭犸的喇嘛一喇叭；
还是提着獭犸的喇嘛打了别着喇叭的哑巴一獭犸。
喇嘛回家炖獭犸，哑巴嘀嘀哒哒吹喇叭。
dǎ nán biān lái le gè yǎ bɑ, yāo lǐ bié le gè lǎ bɑ；
dǎ běi biān lái le gè lǎ mɑ, shǒu lǐ tí le gè tǎ mɑ.
tí zhe tǎ mɑ de lǎ mɑ yào ná tǎ mɑ huàn bié zhe lǎ bɑ de yǎ bɑ de lǎ bɑ；
bié zhe lǎ bɑ de yǎ bɑ bù yuàn ná lǎ bɑ huàn tí zhe tǎ mɑ de lǎ mɑ de tǎ mɑ.
bù zhī shì bié zhe lǎ bɑ de yǎ bɑ dǎ le tí zhe tǎ mɑ de lǎ mɑ yī lǎ bɑ；
hái shì tí zhe tǎ mɑ de lǎ mɑ dǎ le bié zhe lǎ bɑ de yǎ bɑ yī tǎ mɑ.
lǎ mɑ huí jiā dùn tǎ mɑ, yǎ bɑ dī dī dā dā chuī lǎ bɑ.
From the south comes a mute, carrying a trumpet at his waist.
From the north comes a monk, holding a fish in his hand.
The monk who is holding a fish wants to trade his fish for a trumpet with the mute who is carrying a trumpet.
The mute who is carrying a trumpet doesn’t want to trade his trumpet with the monk who is holding the fish.
Not sure whether the mute who was carrying a trumpet hit the monk who was holding a fish with his trumpet, or whether the monk who was carrying a fish used his fish to hit the mute who was carrying a trumpet.
The monk goes home and stews his fish.
The mute plays his trumpet.
Here’s a short video of two people who made this tongue twister into a song! It’s quite hilarious – they did change some of the lyrics.
Nice job Joanne! I definitely found out one of my weaknesses trying these out. The last tongue twister I found humorous, as a monk and a mute fight then move on. I’ll definitely share these with my family. Keep up the great work!
哈哈哈！第三个关于吃葡萄的绕口令，从小就听我哥说。所以这段绕口令大概是我说的最好的一个了。在我印象中，第一个绕口令是我妈妈给我讲的，四和十的发音可能只有一点点像，但是读的快了，读的多了真的就很容易读错，不过我在读这篇文章的时候并没有读错！
nice and fun article !!! i never knew how hard and yet interesting these tongue twisters were! not only are these tongue twisters extremely challenging for me they proved to be extremely hilarious at the same time !
Great job Joanne! I think that this article was very interesting and funny. I’ve heard of most of the tongue twisters you included in your article but I still can’t say it properly. I think that since many characters in the Chinese language have similar pronunciations, it makes it harder to say.
这个是中文的绕口令，以前我也常常听到绕口令，觉得很好玩，也说明中文可以将这些东西变得有这种绕口令的感觉。
Great job on writing about tongue twisters in Chinese. These tongue twisters are really hard to say unless you can really articulate the words in Chinese. I have heard of most of these tongue twisters but I don’t think that I can even say these sayings. They can be hard to say but they can also be really funny when you are hearing other people say them.
These was an interesting article! I enjoyed reading all the poems and tongue twisters and attempting to say them as fast as possible. I think one great difference between Chinese and English tongue twisters is that there are multiple meanings for the sounding word, such as “shi,” that can be used.
Great job on your article about tongue twisters in Chinese. The video that you posted was hilarious! This article reminds me of the times when my mom would tell me all these tongue twisters. It was really funny hearing her say them. I’ll be sure to try out one of these!
This article is definitely a memorable one. My head hurts just looking at the tongue twisters! There are so many words that sound similar in Chinese, and the tongue twisters that you posted are examples of that. I’m going to try to show those to my brother! Good job with this article.
Nice article. Really liked all the new tongue twisters and I will be sure to try them out.
Great job! These tongue twisters are really hard to say unless you can really articulate the words in Chinese. I have heard of most of these tongue twisters said before but I try not to say them because I know I’ll mess up. They can be hard to say but they can also be really funny when you are hearing other people say them. Thanks for listing out a lot of the tounge twisters so I can stay away from using those words.
This article was fun to read. It showed me some aspects of the language that I had never seen. I knew that a lot of Chinese characters sounded alike, but didn’t know that you could make meaningful tongue twisters out of them. It also taught me some new vocabulary which I had never seen before. The video was also entertaining.
These tongue twisters are way harder than English tongue twisters. I can barely say the first tongue twister without messing up. There is no way I could even try to say the last tongue twister. The video is very funny and entertaining. Thanks for including the pinyin in the article. If it wasn’t for the pinyin, I probably could not have read the tongue twisters.
Well, that was fun to watch. I never thought that there could be Chinese tongue twisters, but I guess anything’s possible. And how can anyone possibly say these?!? The first two are okay, but it just becomes way too difficult after that. At least now I know not to use those words in the same sentence. And props to whoever can figure out what they are saying without the captions, I could never do that for the faster ones.
nice and fun article !!! i never knew how hard and yet interesting these tongue twisters were! not only are these tongue twisters extremely challenging for me they proved to be extremely hilarious at the same time !
I only knew one real tongue twister (which was the four is four, ten is ten one), but I did not know that this many tongue twisters actually existed. These are far more challenging than I thought when I tried to even read them. Well done.
I never knew that tongue twisters existed in Chinese. And I definitely don’t need these in my life, as English tongue twisters are already hard enough for me. It still confuses me how the people in the video can say those tongue twisters flawlessly! Also, this article just goes to show how languages have all sorts of aspects and functions to them. Hopefully I can master these tongue twisters someday.
Great article! It was fun to try out each of these tongue twisters. I have never heard of most of these before. It’s interesting how there are tongue twisters in Chinese like there are in a English. Some of these tongue twisters were very difficult, and often got very confusing!
I didn’t even know Chinese tongue twisters existed until now… I’d think that my mother would’ve taught them to me, but hey, that’s really incredible. Good job!
Such a fun article! I never thought there were Chinese tongue twisters. With English tongue twisters being plenty difficult, I wasn’t surprised when I failed to successfully read a single line! Reaching the fluency to fully appreciate these elaborate wordplays is definitely a goal of mine. The video is also a fun supplement!
This article was a fun and amazing read. I’ve never really knew that there were Chinese tongue twisters. As I was reading these tongue twister I thought that it wouldn’t be that hard, but as I was reading these it’s actually pretty complicated and actually got me.
Nice article! I tried saying some of these, and I couldn’t! Lol! These Chinese tongue twisters are even harder than the ones I already know!
This article was very entertaining to read! I’ve heard of some of these tongue twisters. I remember trying to say these tongue twisters when I was young and always messing up. It’s a lot harder than it looks!
Great article, Joanne! This was a very interesting and fun article to read. I’ve only heard of the first tongue twister, so it was super awesome that I was able to learn 4 more. I loved that you not only added the meanings behind each one, but you also added the pinyin to make it easier for the readers to read through them, and perhaps even to see the similarities in the pronunciations!
What an interesting and fun article, Joanne! I was trying some of the tongue twisters as I went along reading, but I was never able to say them quickly. I tried English tongue twisters when I was little and actually practiced them so I could impress friends when I said them quickly. I never knew there were Chinese tongue twisters too though! I might start practicing them.
这些绕口令都很有趣。吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮这个绕口令是我唯一一个能说得很溜的绕口令。我还记得我小时候老是跟我弟弟比赛，看谁能把这句绕口令说得最快。其他的绕口令我都说不好。看来我还得多多练习，努力把这些绕口令说好。
This article was really entertaining! Chinese tongue twisters are really tough just like the English ones. I tried all of them and it was really hard to be able to say them really fast and clearly. My favorite one was the “Eating Grapes” because even though it was short and simple, it was really difficult. My dad has showed me some when I was younger and I was so confused on how he said all of that so quickly. I will try them again and hope I can say them better!
This article was very entertaining as I can never say any English tongue twisters. As a result, when reading your article I kept on trying to say the Chinese ones (but to no success). I liked how you added a video at the end of the article, so that we could hear the tongue twisters in a song. I’ll continue to keep practicing, and maybe I could master at least one by Monday. All of these tongue twisters are very interesting and unique in their own way. My favorite tongue twister in the article is the first one, as it amazes me how a few simple characters can be so hard to say! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for writing this interesting article! thought English tongue twisters were already tough, but these Chinese tongue twisters sure are difficult to say. My personal favorite tongue twister from up there is the “Four is Four, Ten is Ten” tongue twister because the writer of this twister took 3 simple characters and turned them into a nightmare to read quickly. I find that these twisters are extra difficult for myself, as I am already not too proficient with pronunciation, so in the case of the first tongue twister, I’d be mixing up second tones with first tones etc. I remember when I was in Chinese school, and the teacher would always hold tongue twister competitions once in a while, offering candy and other prizes. Although I never did any good in those competitions, this article brought back some memories I had of my Chinese school.
This was actually so hard and confusing to do. These tongue twisters might actually be harder than the English ones because of the many different tones.I was only able to do the first one and could barely get the second one. This is definitely interesting to try. I would like to see some editors and especially Joannie to try the challenge.
Wow, great article! This was extremely interesting and enjoyable to read. I was not aware that there were Chinese tongue twisters such as these prior to reading this article. I loved that you included examples of Chinese tongue twisters because it showed how difficult it is to read each of them. I also liked the video a lot because I was able to hear how challenging Chinese tongue twisters are because of the tone marks. Thanks so much!
Such a fun and interesting article! I had no idea there were tongue twisters in Chinese. They look extremely difficult to say, the first one especially! I liked how you included the Chinese characters, pinyin, and English translation. I also liked the video you put at the bottom. Thank you for sharing!
This was so fun to read through! I’ve never heard of any of these. Some of them are really hard to read. Good job on the article.
nice and fun article !!! i never knew how hard and yet interesting these tongue twisters were! not only are these tongue twisters extremely challenging for me they proved to be extremely hilarious at the same time !