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Diction exercises to improve enunciation
- articulation drills to make sure they get your message
By: Susan Dugdale
Why should you do diction exercises?
Because your speech content may be great, you may look fantastic, but unless your audience can easily UNDERSTAND what you're saying, your message is seriously compromised.
Diction exercises will help you learn how to enunciate well, to speak clearly.
An athlete does warm-ups and stretches before an event: a singer does likewise.
These drills using tongue twisters are the public speaker's warm up equivalent. They're an easy way to prepare and train you to speak cleanly, clearly and effectively.
What's on this page
Use the links to jump to:
- the benefits of tongue twister diction exercises, a definition of diction and more
- 4 tips for beginners to help you get the most out the exercises
- Tongue twisters for: B words (with audio), D words, F words, H words, J words, K words, L words, N & U words, P words, Q words, R words, S words, T words, V words.
- Two tricky twisters especially to exercise tongues
- An extra challenging work out: the Major General's patter song from Gilberts and Sullivan's light opera, The Pirates of Penzance. (With audio.)
- Other resources to help with speech delivery
The benefits of diction exercises or drills are:
- strengthening and stretching the facial and mouth muscles involved in speech,
- bringing to your attention habitual speech patterns which may be less than perfect.
Good diction, (enunciation), is NOT about changing your accent or making you 'talk posh'.
It is about clarity, effective communication: making sure what you say is heard and comprehended correctly.
Seize the opportunity to talk *tosh
Seize the opportunity and talk *tosh, with aplomb! It will make a huge difference.
Tongue twisters have long been an integral part of a public speaker's tool kit. As well as being fun, they are extremely effective - a good way to get great diction fast.
Why are tongue twisters so silly?
If you're puzzled by them because English is your 2nd, 3rd or language, don't be. Stop trying to find their meaning. Because more often than not, there is none and they are complete nonsense.
Or as my father would say, total twaddle. Tripe. Gibberish and bunkum.
They're that way because they are made up of specific, often similar sounding, word combinations that have been put together purely for the different ways they make you work to say them clearly. They were never meant to make sense!
* tosh, twaddle, tripe, gibberish, and bunkum are synonyms for anything that does not make sense. It's illogical, silly or stupid.
Diction Exercises: Tips & Tongue Twisters
Tips for beginners
- The best way to start is slowly and carefully.
- Pay close attention to make sure the start and end of each word is crisp.
- Repeat the phrase, getting faster and faster while maintaining clear speech: that is ensuring the vowel and consonant sounds are distinctly heard. If you trip over words, stop and start again.
- As an additional exercise for improving your tongue's flexibility and agility add Mrs Tongue Does Her Housework to your practice session. These stretches will help enormously!
Diction Exercises for 'B' words:
Betty bought a bit of butter,
but she found the butter bitter,
so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better.
Blue blood, black blood.
Black bug, blue bug.
Bill had a billboard.
Bill also had a board bill.
The board bill bored Bill,
So Bill sold his billboard
And paid his board bill.
Then the board bill
No longer bored Bill,
But though he had no board bill,
Neither did he have his billboard!
Here's a small audio clip of me* saying those classic 'B' word tongue twisters: 'Betty Botter' and 'Bill had a billboard'. Click to play it.
*I'm a New Zealander. That's the foreign accent you're hearing.
For 'D' words try:
Two dozen double damask dinner napkins,
two dozen double damask dinner napkins ...
Do drop in at the Dewdrop Inn,
do drop in at the Dewdrop Inn ...
How much dew could a dewdrop drop if a dewdrop did drop dew?
Down the deep damp dark dank den,
down the deep damp dark dank den ...
Diction Exercises for 'F' words:
Four furious friends fought for the phone,
four furious friends fought for the phone ...
Five flippant Frenchmen fly from France for fashions,
Five flippant Frenchmen fly from France for fashions ...
For 'H' words try:
How was Harry hastened so hurriedly from the hunt?
How was Harry hastened so hurriedly from the hunt? ...
In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen, In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen ...
'J' word fun:
James just jostled Jean gently.
James just jostled Jean gently ...
Jack the jailbird jacked a jeep.
Jack the jailbird jacked a jeep ...
Diction Exercises for 'K' words:
Kiss her quick, kiss her quicker, kiss her quickest.
Kiss her quick, kiss her quicker, kiss her quickest ...
My cutlery cuts keenly and cleanly.
My cutlery cuts keenly and cleanly ...
'L' words:
Literally literary.
Literally literary ...
Larry sent the latter a letter later.
Larry sent the latter a letter later ...
Lucy lingered, looking longingly for her lost lap-dog.
Lucy lingered, looking longingly for her lost lap-dog ...
Diction Exercise for 'N' and 'U' sounds:
 |
 |
You know New York,
You need New York,
You know you need unique New York.
Diction Exercises for 'P' words:
Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?
Pearls, please, pretty Penelope,
Pretty Penelope, pretty Penelope,
Pearls, please, pretty Penelope,
Pretty Penelope Pring ...
For 'Q' words:
Quick kiss. Quicker kiss. Quickest kiss.
Quick kiss. Quicker kiss. Quickest kiss ...
The quarrelsome Queen quaffed quickly and quietly.
The quarrelsome Queen quaffed quickly and quietly.
For 'R' words:
Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.
Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran ...
Reading and writing are richly rewarding.
Reading and writing are richly rewarding ...
Exercises for 'S' words:
Six thick thistle sticks,
Six thick thistle sticks ...
Theophilus Thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb ...
The shrewd shrew sold Sarah seven sliver fish slices ...
Sister Susie sat on the sea shore sewing shirts for sailors ...
Moses supposes his toeses* are roses,
But Moses supposes erroneously,
For nobody's toeses are posies of roses,
As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
*Pronounce the word 'toeses' to rhyme with 'Moses'.
For 'T' words:
Ten tame tadpoles tucked tightly in a thin tall tin.
Ten tame tadpoles tucked tightly in a thin tall tin ...
Two toads, totally tired, trying to trot to Tewkesbury.
Two toads, totally tired, trying to trot to Tewkesbury.
For 'V' words:
Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently.
Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently ...
Vera valued the valley violets.
Vera valued the valley violets ...
And lastly, two tricky tongue exercises
Red leather, yellow leather...
Red lorry, yellow lorry...
And then, one more for good measure!
This comes from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1880 light opera "The Pirates of Penzance" .
It's from the Major General's patter song and is guaranteed to make you work as it's the tongue's equivalent of a triathlon!
The lyrics include many difficult combinations, a wide range of individual sounds, that are impossible to say the right way unless you articulate clearly.
Have fun with this excerpt!*
(I had a play with it too. You can listen to my effort if you wish. You'll find it below the words.)I am the very model of modern Major General
'I am the very pattern of a modern Major-General;
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral;
I know the Kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted too with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus,
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous,
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.'
Would you like to hear it?
This is me, Susan, having fun. .
Do you teach or lead a group of public speakers?
You could download 6 fun and effective articulation exercises based on these tongue twisters for your class now.
For $5.95 you get full instructions for each activity, plus printable tongue twister sheets.
For more on speech delivery & vocal variety
Click the link to find information on:
- developing vocal variety (particularly important if you're a Monotone Martha or Martin'),
- using flexible speech rates (great for slowing a motor-mouth),
- the secrets of using silence well - how to uses pauses,
- breathing exercises to effectively overcome the anxiety of public speaking while strengthening your lung power,
- what your body language is saying, often without you realizing it!
And then of course there's public speaking games!
Maybe you are looking for good public speaking games to help develop confidence, creativity, spontaneity and fluency?
These 10 activities are proven, effective and fun. Use them with small or large groups.
And if you lead a public speaking group and you're always on the look out for activities...
You'll love my ebook!
28 public speaking games (with many more variations and extensions), full instructions, PLUS printable topic, tongue twister, poem and image sheets.
A complete one-stop-select-print-go public speaking resource for busy people.
Take a peek - find out more >>
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