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Poetry/tongue twisters ?

bigal
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 49
Joined: February 15th, 2010 9:36 am

Poetry/tongue twisters ?

Postby bigal » January 7th, 2011 11:27 pm

How about a few lessons on poetry / tongue twisters ?

Some of them a good way to force you to improve tone pronunciation and listening skills

eg
Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eatin ... _Stone_Den
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/10466/
http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de/SHISHI.RXML
http://videodownloader.net/especial/shi.mp3

jane1000288416
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 26
Joined: September 8th, 2010 1:32 am

Postby jane1000288416 » January 21st, 2011 5:02 am

Hi Bigal,
Thanks for the suggestions and those links. Some of them I think are even difficult for natives. I'll definitely pass it on see what they say.

Best,
Jane

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bigal
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 49
Joined: February 15th, 2010 9:36 am

Postby bigal » January 23rd, 2011 7:00 am

Had enough trouble with some others I had to do in class.

As a beginner I had enough trouble with

四是四,十是十,十四是十四,四十是四十。你不要把十四说成四十,四十说

and

四十四头死的石狮子

Got those two down okay now. Still struggling but slowly making progress with 施氏食狮史.

Have to make the people recording the material(voice acting) for the lessons earn their keep! :twisted:

bigal
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 49
Joined: February 15th, 2010 9:36 am

Postby bigal » January 23rd, 2011 7:23 am

Here's a few more


盆和瓶
桌上有个盆
盆里有个瓶
砰 砰 砰
是瓶砰盆
还是盆砰瓶


扁 担 长 , 板 凳 宽 , 扁 担 比 板 凳 长 , 板 凳 比 扁 担 宽 ,
扁 担 绑 在 了 板 凳 上 , 板 凳 不 让 扁 担 绑 在 板 凳 上 , 扁 担 非 要 绑 在 板 凳 上 。


吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮
chī pú tāo bù tù pú tāo pì

jane1000288416
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 26
Joined: September 8th, 2010 1:32 am

Postby jane1000288416 » January 24th, 2011 2:21 am

Yeah, those ones are some of the very common ones that often appear in Chinese crosstalks. It's like "she sells seashells at the seashore" in English.

And I think you are doing a fine job trying to practice these. 加油。Any English ones you could recommend for me?

:wink:
Jane

bigal
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 49
Joined: February 15th, 2010 9:36 am

Postby bigal » January 24th, 2011 2:38 am

Sure :twisted:
here's a few


She sells sea shells by the sea shore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.


Mares eat oats and does eat oats,
and little lambs eat ivy.
A Kid will eat ivy too, wouldn't you?


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?


Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.

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 batter 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.



How much wood could Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck, if Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood? If Chuck Woods' woodchuck could and would chuck wood, how much wood could and would Chuck Woods' woodchuck chuck? Chuck Woods' woodchuck would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as any woodchuck would, if a woodchuck could and would chuck wood.

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?


A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.


Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

Seventy seven benevolent elephants


A tree toad loved a she-toad,
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad,
But a three-toed toad was she.

The two-toed tree toad tried to win,
The three-toed she-toad's heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground,
That the three-toed tree toad trod.

But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn't please her whim.
From her tree toad bower,
With her three-toed power,
The she-toad vetoed him.


Round the rugged rock, the ragged rascal ran.

Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.


I am not the pheasant plucker,
I'm the pheasant plucker's mate.
I am only plucking pheasants
'cause the pheasant plucker's running late.


Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy... was he?

bigal
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 49
Joined: February 15th, 2010 9:36 am

Postby bigal » January 24th, 2011 2:51 am

Not tongue twisters but good for practising English

Alliterations:
How now brown cow?
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
We felt dreary and dismal in the darkness of the night.
Little leaky lousy leeches.

from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells":

Hear the loud alarm bells--
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

from Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT'S DREAM:
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast


This phrase is a pangram - a phrase which contains every letter of the alphabet.Its a good one to write out in both lower and upper case
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

A few other pangrams are:
How quickly daft jumping zebras vex!
Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex!
Bright vixens jump; dozy fowl quack.
Wolf zombies quickly spot the jinxed grave.
The lazy major was fixing Cupid's broken quiver.

phonetic pangram
Sheathing his sword, the big private helped an adult commonwealth refugee.


In chinese the character 永
contains each stroke once as in 永字八法.

I should have a go writing out 千字文 (Thousand character classic - poem)


For some Australian tongue twisters - mostly place names
http://www.qondio.com/australian-place- ... e-twisters
http://www.couriermail.com.au/travel/au ... 1114358139

http://goaustralia.about.com/cs/languag ... speak2.htm
Last edited by bigal on January 24th, 2011 2:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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