5 Chinese Tongue Twisters

No matter the language, tongue twisters are a fun way to help out with pronunciation when trying to learn new foreign syllables, words and phrases.

Why Practice Chinese with Tongue Twisters? Mandarin Chinese is pretty much the ideal language for crazy tongue twisters. Language learners attempting to speak it find that tongue twisters really aid them in focusing on all the different tones that form the words and the meanings that go along with them.

Many people believe that Chinese tongue twisters are a lot harder than English ones and, well, they might be right. They can get super subtle and tricky, even for natives. However, because of this, they’re an awesome way to really get you to practice not only a vast amount of Chinese words to help boost your vocabulary, but to also become more proficient with all of the diverse tones that make each word so unique. After all, tones are key to speaking fluent, comprehensible Chinese.

 

Here are 5 tongue twisters for you to practice Chinese:

 

1. Pear and Mud

树上有梨Shù shàng yǒu lí

地上有泥dì shàng yǒu ní

风刮梨Fēng guā lí

梨落地lí luò dì

梨滚泥lí gǔn ní

泥沾梨。ní zhān lí.

Pear and mud

atop the tree, there is a pear

atop the ground, there is mud,

the wind knocks off the pear,

the pear falls to the ground,

the pears rolls on the mud,

the mud sticks to the pear.

 

2. Bamboo Pole

扁担长,板凳宽,biǎn dàn cháng, bǎn dèng kuān,

扁担要绑在板凳上,biǎn dàn bǎng zài le bǎn dèng shàng,

板凳不让扁担绑在板凳上,bǎn dèng bú ràng biǎn dàn bǎng zài bǎn dèng shàng,

扁担非要绑在板凳上。biǎn dàn fēi yào bǎng zài bǎn dèng shàng.

A bamboo pole is long, and a bench is wide.

The bamboo pole was bound to the bench.

The bench did not allow the pole to be bound to it,

but the pole insisted on being bound to the bench.

 

3. Bird and Cat

树上一只鸟,shù shang yì zhī niǎo,

地上一只猫。dì shang yì zhī māo.

地上的猫想咬树上的鸟,dì shang de māo xiǎng yǎo shù shang de niǎo,

树上的鸟想啄猫的毛。shù shang de niǎo xiǎng zhuó māo de máo.

The bird on the tree

The cat on the ground

From the ground, the cat tries to bite the bird in the tree

From the tree the bird tries to peck at the cat’s hairs.

 

4. Bird Island

鸟岛是岛,niáo dǎo shì dǎo,

鸟岛有鸟。niáo dǎo yóu niǎo.

鸟岛的鸟多得数不清了。niáo dǎo de niǎo duō de shǔ bù qīng le.

要想到鸟岛,yào xiǎng dào niáo dǎo,

一定要爱鸟。yī dìng yào ài niǎo.

你不爱小鸟nǐ bú ài xiáo niǎo

就别到鸟岛。jiù bié dào niáo dǎo.

Bird Island is an island;

Bird Island has birds.

The birds on Bird Island are countless.

If you wish to go to Bird Island,

you must love birds.

If you don’t love small birds,

don’t go to Bird Island.

 

5. If You Know, Say You Know

知道就说知道,zhī dào jiù shuō zhī dào,

不知道就说不知道,bù zhī dào jiù shuō bu zhī dào,

不要知道说不知道,bù yào zhī dào shuō bu zhī dào,

也不要不知道说知道,yě bù yào bù zhī dào shuō zhī dào,

你知道不知道?nǐ zhī dào bù zhī dào?

If you know, just say you know.

If you don’t know, just say you don’t know.

You shouldn’t know and say you don’t know.

And you shouldn’t not know and say you do know.

You know?


Post time: May-19-2020