Actors, singers and comedians have done it. Teachers and professors as well. In order to better articulate their words to the audience, they had to practice speaking with a wine cork in their mouths. Situated in a vertical position between the upper and lower jaws, this technique has been proven effective in getting their mouths to move, while stretching it in a vertical position.
This exercise is also quite useful when learning English. 🙂
There are several words, whose endings produce the “ahhh” sound, in particular the endings of I+ consonant+ E. Regardless of which consonant you choose to insert, they all have the same result- a sound you produce while your mouth is in a vertical position. The difference is simply the different intonations you use.
And therefore, using the theme of dining in Stein, in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, here are some tongue twisters for you to practice, with the goal of getting you to stretch your mouth and better pronounce the words in English.
So without further ado….. 🙂
-INE/-EIN:
Two swines dine in Stein
Stein is in Holstein
Two beer steins
From Schleswig-Holstein
Enshrined in Turpentine
Like a serpentine
Whining to the swine
While dining with wine in Holstein.
-IDE/ -YDE / -Y/ -IE:
Clyde dyed his hide with dioxide
Clyde died from carbon monoxide
Dr. Hyde dyed his hide with peroxide
Dr. Hyde died from carbon dioxide.
Where are Clyde and Dr. Hyde?
They hide and confide to Heidi
And take pride from the dye on the hide
That they died from dioxide and not peroxide.
-IBE:
Jeff scribed a jibe
Geoff subscribed to Jibe
Jeff conscribed a bribe
Geoff unsubscribed
Jeff prescribed Geoff to Gibe
Now Geoff starts to describe
How Gibe circumscribes a bribe
And describes to a tribe
How Jibe and Gibe describe
How to circumscribe a bribe.
-ICE:
Three mice stole the dice
The dice had spice on ice
Three mice had lice on the ice
Who gave advice at a price.
The lice sliced the ice
And the mice were nice
And traded allspice with the lice for spice
To put on the ice.
Now the mice and the lice
Are eating ice with spice
And gave advice for allspice
Eaten while on ice.
-IME:
Two mimes chimed in.
A crime was chimed at bedtime
A mime did a crime at dinnertime
A mime chimed about a crime at nighttime
When bedtime chimed for the mime
It’s crime-fighting time at daytime
When a mime chimes about lime
Stolen at lunchtime by a mime
That lime was worth a dime
Was it worth a crime for a mime to steal a lime
When it was lunchtime and halftime
Of a football match between mimes?
-ILE:
Three juveniles pile a woodpile
Two crocodiles are in the Nile
Somewhile a mile of crocodiles
Saw a pile of reptiles
While the juveniles reconcile
To the two crocodiles in the Nile
Who are bile and riled
Because the reptiles became Gentiles
Who tiled the mile of crocodiles
While the two crocodiles swam into the Nile.
-IPE
Two pipers swiped bagpipes
Two bagpipes were wiped by snipers
They griped about the bagpipes’ stripes
And wiped the pipes with blowpipes.
Now the pipers griped about the blowpipes
The handypipes are way too ripe
The striped bagpipes look like cesspipes
The gripes turned to tripe
The pipers piped their bagpipes
And blew the snipers into the stovepipe
They gripe no more because the pipes are stripe
And tripe no more they try.
-IZE
We organize to unionize
And socialize to romanticize
And personalize to institutionalize
And nationalize to legitimize
And equalize to legalize
And overcapitalize to monopolize
And overspecialize to modernize
And overdramatize to outsize
And overemphasize to moralize
And robotize to radicalize
And vandalize to terrorize
And universalize to unrealize
And vitalize to vocalize
And spiritualize to memorialize
And stabilize to visualize its size of
a globalized society.
How’s the mouth stretching now? If you feel a pull, then it’s working wonders. Keep practicing until you can hear the difference. Good luck. 😉
Stein is a resort town in Schleswig-Holstein. Located east of Kiel along the Baltic Sea coast, it has a population of 830 residents and belongs to the district of Plön. For more on the town, please click here to the town’s website. 🙂
Reblogged this on Ginge in Germany.
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