Try these French Tongue Twisters, “Virelangue” in French
During one of my first jobs here in France, one of my colleagues challenged me to learn these French tongue twisters.
I found this crumpled piece of paper in a pile of forgotten souvenirs under the bed the other day. I was compelled to go through the papers as my cat had a mad moment ripping and jumping and generally making an ecstatic mess.
I think I’m still scarred from childhood attempts to pronounce English tongue twisters. Remember the old “she sells seashells by the seashore?” My British father was constantly coming out with random limericks and elaborate tongue twisters.
How is your French accent?
My French accent is pretty good, I must admit. My problem is that my sentence structure and verb conjugations are far from perfect. Some French people think I’m French if we’re having a basic conversation about what I’m doing in this part of the world etc. As soon as it comes to telling a story, oh my.
How is your pronunciation? Try these common French tongue twisters for fun! (don’t worry, many French people have trouble)
Un chasseur sachant chasser chasse sans son chien.
A hunter who knows how to hunt hunts without his dog.
Les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse, sont-elles sèches ? Archi-sèches.
The archduchesses socks: are they dry? Very dry.
Ces six saucissons-secs-ci sont si secs qu’on ne sait si s’en sont.
These six dried sausages are so dry that we don’t know if they are (dried sausages).
This one is hard, the “oie” sound is tricky in French:
Où niche la pie? La pie niche haut.
Où niche l’oie? L’oie niche bas.
Où niche l’hibou? L’hibou niche ni haut ni bas !
French tongue twisters can be great for understanding verb conjugaisons:
Un pâtissier qui pâtissait chez un tapissier qui tapissait, dit un jour au tapissier qui tapissait: vaut-il mieux pâtisser chez un tapissier qui tapisse ou tapisser chez un pâtissier qui pâtisse?
Do you have a favorite tongue twister in either English or French?
Curious Provence offers free trials of lessons with Frantastique to improve your French.
