Looking for fun ways to master a foreign accent? Try tongue twisters to improve your pronunciation in any foreign language that you are learning.

How it helps in perfecting the accent?

Tongue twisters are mainly phrases in which the same group of sounds are repeated. This repetition makes it difficult to pronounce the words when you try to say them quickly or multiple times in a row. If you master the unfamiliar sounds in a foreign language tongue twister, it will help you improve your accent.

Example:

Si mon tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu.

(If my uncle shaves your uncle, your uncle will be shaven.)

In this French tongue twister, three words- ton (your), tond (to shave) and tonton (uncle) are pronounced in the exact same manner in French. This means, the sentence calls for nine repetitions of the same sound at once. When you repeat unfamiliar sounds, you will get a better idea of what it’s like to speak in full sentences in French.

How it helps in learning vowels?

Tongue twisters won’t exactly teach you useful vocabulary or common phrases in your target language but you can certainly learn few sounds and vowels.

Example:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

If you are learning English, you can try this tongue twister to practice vowels. In this tongue twister, different sounding vowels are put between consonants that are similar-sounding. It also combines vowels with “r” which is a common vowel-consonant combination in English language.

How to start?

• Find common tongue twisters in the language you are learning and practice saying them clearly.
• You can ask a native speaker to say the words so that you know the exact pronunciation of each word.
• It is recommended to record their voice to make learning easy.
• Once you have gotten used to the pronunciation part, you can start saying the tongue twisters rapidly.

Extend the Fun of Learning

Besides tongue twisters, if you wish to learn commonly used phrases in a new language, there are several language apps that you can try. For instance, apps by AlterGyan contain more than 1200 frequently-used phrases in different languages voiced out by a native speaker. These apps are free and fun to use if you want to converse with ease in a new dialect.