Diction Exercises - Tongue Twisters to Learn How to Speak Clear

7/22/2019 Diction Exercises - Tongue Twisters to Learn How to Speak Clear

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Diction Exercises

- to make sure they get your message

Why shouldyou do diction exercises?

Because your speech content may be great, you may lookfantastic but unless

your audience can UNDERSTAND what you're saying, your message is lost.

Diction exercises will help

you learn how to speak

clearly. An athlete does

warm-ups and stretches

before an event: a singer

does likewise.

These exercises are the

speaker's warm-up

equivalent. They prepareand train you to speak with

ease.

The specific benefits of

diction/articulation

exercises are:

strengthening and stretching the muscles involved in speech

bringing to your attention habitual speech patterns which may be less

than perfect.

Good diction is NOTabout changing your accent or making you 'talk posh'.

It is about clarity- making sure what you say is heard.

The most commonly known and used

diction exercises are Tongue

Twisters.

There are literally squillions of them,

each focusing on either a single letter,

or a letter combination. Often they're

complete nonsense - phrases and word

combinations chosen purely for the

way they make you work to say them

clearly.

Tongue twisters have long been an

integral part of a public speaker's tool

kit. As well as being fun, they are

extremely effective.

Diction Exercises: Tips & Tongue Twisters

Beginners' tips

Start slowly and carefully.

Make sure the start and end

of each word is crisp.

Repeat the phrase, getting

faster and faster while

maintaining clarity. If you trip

over words, stop and start

again.

As an additional exercise for

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on Exercises - Tongue Twisters to Learn How to Speak Clearly http://www.write-out-loud.com/dictionexerc

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improving your tongue's

flexibility and agility add "Mrs

Tongue Does Her

Housework" to your practice

session. These stretches will

help enormously.

Are you turning people's ears offthrough mispronunciation?

Get them tuned in.

Find out how to pronounce wordsproperly.

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.

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!

For 'D' words try:

Did Doug dig David's garden or did David dig Doug's garden?

Do drop in at the Dewdrop Inn

Diction Exercises for 'F' words:

Four furious friends fought for the phone

Five flippant Frenchmen fly from France for fashions

For 'H' words try:

How was Harry hastened so hurriedly from the hunt?

In Hertford,Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly everhappen

Diction Exercises for 'J' words:

James just jostled Jean gently.

Jack the jailbird jacked a jeep.

Diction Exercises for 'K' words:

Kiss her quick, kiss her quicker, kiss her quickest.

Christmas

Declamation

Demonstration

Engagement

Eulogy

Farewell

Funny

Introduction

Informative

Persuasive

Retirement

Student Council

Thank you

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Using

Humor

Effective Humor

Physical Humor

Verbal Humor

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Poems

How to read a poem

How to Write a Poem

Funeral Poems

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Wedding

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My cutlery cuts keenly and cleanly.

Diction Exercises for 'L' words:

Literally literary.

Larry sent the latter a letter later.

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.

Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly...

For 'R' words:

Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.

Reading and writing are richly rewarding.

Exercises for 'S' words:

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 wo rd 'toeses'to rhyme with 'Moses'.)


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For 'T' words:

Ten tame tadpoles tucked tightly in a thin tall tin.

Two toads, totally tired, trying to trot to Tewkesbury.

For 'V' words:

Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently.

Vera valued the valley violets.

And lastly, two especially for your tongue

Red leather, yellow leather...

Red lorry, yellow lorry...

And then, one more for good measure!

This comes from Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera

'The Pirates of Penzance'.

It's guaranteedto make you work as it's the

tongue's equivalent of a triathlon!

It includes many difficult combinations impossible

to get right unless you articulate clearly. Have fun

with it.

'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 listen to it?This is me, Susan, having fun.

Now that the 'tip of your tongue, the teeth and the lips'have had a thoroughwork-out be sure to stop by the other EXTRA ESSENTIAL TIP pages.

You'll 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 ofusing silence effectively

and breathing exercises especially designed to overcome the

anxiety of public speaking while strengthening your lung power!

Your mouth utters the words but do you know what secrets your

body language is giving away? Click the link to teach yourself body


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language basics and perfectly align your message.

Make sure they're laughing WITH you, not AT you! Find out how to

use humor effectively. Get all the benefits of using humor

effectively: relax your audience ...

Or maybe you are looking for great free word games to help developconfidence, creativity, spontaneity and fluency in your speaking? These are

proven, effective and fun. Use them with small or large groups.

If you lead a public speakinggroup and you're always on the

look-out for activities ....

You'll love my book!

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.

Find out more

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Diction Exercises - Tongue Twisters to Learn How to Speak Clear