After Anna’s Polish tongue twisters, do you fancy trying some Italian ones?

Let’s start with an easy one:
Tre tigri contro tre tigri (Three tigers against three tigers). It sounds very easy, but try to say it quickly and you will soon get something which is more similar to ‘Tre trighi contro tre tirghi’!!! Also, this is quite difficult for people who cannot roll their Rs.

Ready for the next step? Here we go:
Trentatre trentine entrarono a Trento tutte e trentatre trottrellando (Thirty-three Trentine women entered Trento, all and thirty-three trotting). Again, here we have even more ‘t + r’ sounds! Give it a go and see how it comes out.

Intermediate level before the final challenge:
Porta aperta per chi porta. Chi non porta, parta pure, poco importa. (The door is open for those who bring something. Those who do not bring anything, let them leave. It is of little importance). This almost sounds like a proverb (but no cats in this one!).

And now, the ultimate step before being awarded a prize in Italian Tongue-twistology Warm up and try this:
Apelle, il figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo, e tutti i pesci vennero a galla, per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo, fatta da Apelle, il figlio di Apollo. (Apelle, the son of Apollus, made a ball out of chickens’ skin, and all fish came to the surface to see the ball of chickens’ skin, made by Apelle, Apollos’s son) No more trrrrrrrrr sounds, but rather a lot of words that differ from each other only for a single vowel, but that have very different meanings.

Before we finish… do you know how to say tongue twister in Italian? We say scioglilingua, which means ‘tongue melter’.

So, happy tongue twisting and melting to everyone!

Chiara Vecchi