Tongue Twisters (2/2): Tricky Sentences and Speed Tests

Of course, there’s a Russian version of the cat scratching curls off the stairs. And the Russian language wouldn’t be itself if it didn’t have an entire collection of such phrases. Plus, record attempts to say them correctly as fast as possible.

Twisting Words

The tongue twister in Russian is called скороговоркa (plural скороговорки) and in English, a tongue-twister. For the first part, we dealt with big words (see shibboleth), but with tricky sentences, we’re getting closer to potential accidents.

5 Short Ones

The first five from Top 5 Russian Tongue Twisters (Russian with Katya, 2020, 5 m).

• Белый снег, белый мел, белый заяц тоже бел. А бот белка не бела – белой даже не была
• Тридцать три корабля лавировали, лавировали да не вылавировали
• Карл украл у Клары коралы, а Клара украла у Карла кларинет
• На дворе трава, на траве дрова. Не руби дрова на траве двора
• Шла Саша по шоссе и сосала сушку

RussianPod101 also has a top 5. Three of them are the same (sometimes in a slightly different order), plus:

• Кукушка купила кукушонку капюшон, надел кукушонок капюшон, в капюшоне кукушонок смешон
• Говорил попугай попугаю: я тебя, попугай, попугаю. Отвечает ему попугай: Попугай, попугай, попугай!

If you want to learn how to pronounce these kinds of sentences, follow Daria Mikhay. She speaks slowly at first but then demonstrates how fast she can say them. You won’t always succeed in repeating after her.

Two of her three Russian Tongue Twisters are different:

• От топота копыт пыль по полю летит
• Ехал Грека через реку. Видит Грека в реке рак. Сунул в реку руку Грека. Рак за руку Греку – цап.

For Ехал Грека, also see Russian Language Online (2020, 2 m), listen to Arie, and this child.

Shla Sasha

Шла Саша, and so on, is also used in a rap song ( Spotify, YouTube) with explicit lyrics. ‘Russia dances to US music, and now it’s okay that “Sasha was walking along the highway and sucking.” Now it’s pop.’ By Мутант Ъхвлам. A much lighter take can be found in Несчастный Случай.

Explanation in Sasha was walking along a highway. Russian tongue twister (Marina Kopylova, 2016, 3 m).

Karl and Klara

Karl and Klara, with their clarinet and corals, have become a speech test in themselves—or a speech competition, where it’s more about firing off words than speaking them.

The short version can be heard in this audio file.
The full version: Карл у Клары украл кораллы, а Клара у Карла украла кларнет. Если бы Карл у Клары не украл кораллы, то Клара у Карла не украла б кларнет ( Lingolive).

• Карл у Клары украл кораллы, а Клара у Карла украла кларнет (Apprendre le russe, 2015, 1.5 m)
• Карл у клары украл кораллы. усовершенствованная версия (Алёна Подвязкина, 2015, 0.5 m)
• Tongue twisters. Карл у Клары украл кораллы (Ru-Land Club, 2014, 3 m), and from the same channel Tongue twisters as a gym for your Russian speech (Ru-Land Club, 2014, 5 m).

Reciting Karl and Klara takes 14 seconds in the woods and 7 minutes under the influence. Karl and Klara also feature in this Dirty Electro House (2016).

Виталий Качковский (2015, 1 m) from a very close distance.

Longer, Faster, More

It’s not just about developing speaking skills with the скороговорка. If you can follow this, you’re well on your way: 8 нескучных скороговорок для развития дикции (Комсомольская Правда, 2017, 1 m) = 8 not-boring tongue twisters for developing diction.

The Самая длинная в мире скороговорка (Мир Белогорья, 2019, 2 m) is the longest tongue twister in the world, and quite a listening challenge too.

Also, check out this Лигурия, performed a bit more calmly. On the other hand, Diana Gulyan speaks like a machine gun. For something different, check out the tongue twisters in chorus.

There’s even a Russian Tongue Twister Song and a tongue twister that’s also a palindrome (think “Madam, I’m Adam”): А роза упала на лапу Азора.

Rap

Rap is also a tongue twister. After all, it’s called rap for a reason.

• Top 65 Russian fastest rappers (Димоон, 2019, 36 m), from the same channel Top 10 fastest Russian rappers (2018, 11 m)
• The Fastest Russian Rap/Hip-Hop Mix (Best Hip-Hop/Rap Russian, 2014, 47 m)
• Fast rapper from Russia (Tim James, 2013, 3 m)

More

• 16 Tricky Russian Tongue-twisters (Irene Ignatenko, 2020, 9 m)
• Foreigners read Russian tongue twisters (Russian with Dasha, 2019, 16 m)
• Американка говорит русские скороговорки (Bridget Barbara, 2018, 6 m), from the same channel Русские скороговорки – My attempt at Russian tongue twisters (Bridget Barbara, 2017, 8 m)
• Скороговорки. Искусство речи (VideoForMe, 2017, 2 m)
• Foreign Students Pronounce Russian Tongue Twisters (Liden & Denz, 2017, 3 m)
• Russian Tongue-Twisters (Zahar Panda, 2017, 4 m)
• Russian Tongue-Twister | Russian Pronunciation (Elena Jung, 2017, 5 m)
• Тренинг для оратора. Скороговорки (Александрa Воробьевa, 2017, 3 m)
• 5 Simple Russian Tongue Twisters (Be Fluent in Russian, 2016, 8 m)
• Russian Tongue Twisters | Топ 10 скороговорок на русском языке (Mary Z, formerly Easy Russian, 2015, 3 m)
• Russian Tongue Twisters 1 (LanguageWorks, 2015, 1 m)
• A Russian tongue twister (Natalya, a Russian teacher, 2015, 1 m)

Check out 10 Russian Tongue Twisters for Perfect Pronunciation and Super Speaking Skills (FluentU). There’s a full list of Скороговорки on Wikiquote.