Learn To Use Tongue Twisting And Speak Diction Words Clearly

The English language has a zillion words consisting of different meanings and some of them sound exactly similar. Do you know why some words sound similar to the words whose alphabets are different? There are various reasons for it because speech clarity might not be so precise while you speak in the American accent. But, when you speak without twisting your tongue to pronounce the exact word – then the message will lose its importance as the listener will not be able to grasp your sentence just because of dissimilarity in hearing that one word.          

With the regular practice of diction exercises, you can improve the clarity of your voice and speak fluently in English accent without worrying about pronunciation. As an athlete does stretching and warm up before the event and a singer also does some rehearsal before the stage performance – similarly, diction exercises act as drillers which are equivalent to the warm-up for accent softening and right speech.                                   

Most commonly used diction exercises are tongue twisters so, make the most of these diction exercises mentioned below and learn to twist your tongue and improve the clarity of your speech. 

‘B’ Words

• Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter bitter, so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better.
• Bill had a billboard. Bill also had a board bill. The board bill bored Bill, so Bill sold his billboard and paid his board bill. Then the board bill no longer bored Bill, but though he had no board bill, neither did he have his billboard!

 ‘D’ Words

• Did Doug dig David’s garden or did David dig Doug’s garden?
• Do drop in at the Dewdrop Inn.

 ‘F’ Words

• Four furious friends fought for the phone.
• Five flippant Frenchmen fly from France for fashions.

 ‘H’ Words

• How was Harry hastened so hurriedly from the hunt?
• In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire’s hurricanes hardly happen.

‘J’ Words

• James just jostled Jean gently.
• Jack the jailbird jacked a jeep.

‘K’ Words

• Kiss her quick, kiss her quicker, kiss her quickest.
• My cutlery cuts keenly and cleanly.

‘L’ Words

• Literally literary.
• Larry sent the latter a letter later.
• Lucy lingered, looking longingly for her lost lap-dog.

‘P’ Words

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, where’s the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?
• Pearls, please, pretty Pretty Penelope, pretty Penelope. Pearls, please, pretty Penelope. Pretty Penelope Pring.

‘Q’ Words

• Quick kiss. Quicker kiss. Quickest kiss.
• Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly.

‘R’ Words

• Round the rugged rocks, the ragged rascal ran.
• Real rock wall, real rock wall, real rock wall. 

‘S’ Words

• The shrewd shrew sold Sarah seven silverfish slices
• She sells seashells on the seashore

‘T’ Words

• Ten tame tadpoles tucked tightly in a thin tall tin
• Thirteen turtles tucked their tails tightly traveling through thick tall terrain

‘V’ Words

• Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently
• Vance vulture loves volleying volleyball in valleys with various violets

Initially, you will face challenges learning to twist your tongue alongside speaking in American English accent. But, you can easily learn all of the tongue twisting accent tips with an accent reduction online course.   

Go through the details of diction exercises and tongue-twisting in accent reduction training at https://localmasters.com/