Hadar Shemesh, a pronunciation expert, walks through tongue twisters like "Unique New York" and "Red leather, yellow leather" to sharpen your English sounds. She demonstrates each one slowly then at speed, pointing out where your tongue and lips need to go. The twisters target tricky sounds that trip up non-native speakers.
Questions this episode answers
March 11, 2025.
Over 16 years.
Chapters
Unique New York. Unique New York. You know you need unique New York. Another one of my favorites. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Here we're practicing the th and the r and some vowels. Hey, you're listening to the Influency podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, a pronunciation expert, fluency coach, and a proud non native speaker. With over 16 years of experience teaching, I am here to share with you all my secrets on how to show up in English clearly with confidence and freedom. On this podcast, I'll provide step by step strategies, lessons, stories and practical tips to keep you inspired and motivated on your English journey. Are you ready? Let's do it. Hi everyone, it's Hadar. And today we have a fun tongue twisting episode because we are going to practice together a bunch of tongue twisters. I'm going to teach you a tongue twister, how to pronounce it, what to focus on. Because usually tongue twisters focus on one or two tricky sounds or similar sounds and that's it. And you're going to have a great resource to practice daily if you want to improve your pronunciation. Now, if you're new to my channel, then hello, my name is Hadar. I'm a non native speaker of English and I'm here to help you speak English with clarity, confidence and freedom. I started my pronunciation journey as an acting student and tongue twisters were a big part of our daily warm up our pronunciation practice routine. And it's good because it helps you focus on very small nuances like very similar consonants or very similar sounds. And when you focus on something that is usually tricky, your brain becomes more aware of it and you train your tongue and mouth to produce sounds that are normally challenging for you. The first tongue twister is one of my favorite and I always start a pronunciation lesson with it or I actually do it myself before I record videos. And that is unique New York. So here we're focusing on the ooh sound. You want to round your lips. Unique New York. Tense. Ooh, tense, E. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. Unique New York. The long version of this one is unique New York. Unique New York. You know you need unique New York. Let's do this one again. Unique New York. Unique New York. You know you need unique New York. The second one, another one of my favorites. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Here we're practicing the th and the R in some vowels. Round your lips for the R. Red leather, stick the tongue out for the th. Yellow leather, long O as in go. Lavender leather, open A as in Cat. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Faster. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Red leather, yellow leather, lavender leather. Woo. That was a good one. The next one, brace yourself. I'm going to say it slowly first. Eddie edited it. When said fast. Eddie edited it. Eddie edited it. Eddie edited it. Because the D between two vowels and the T between two vowels are pronounced the same. Eddie edited it. Eddie edited it. Eddie edited it. Eddie edited it. Okay, the next one is. The big black bug bit the big brown bear and the big brown bear bled blue black blood. Let's do it again. Don't worry. Step by step. The big black bug. The big lacks I. The big black bug bit the big brown bear. The big black bug bit the big brown bear. Let's do just that part. The big black bug bit. But the big brown bear and the big brown bear bled blue, black blood. Blue, black, blue, black, blue, black, blue black blood. And the big brown bear bled blue black blood. Now let's do the whole thing together. The big black bug bit the big brown bear and the big brown bear bled blue black blood. The big black bug bit the big brown bear and the big brown bear bled blue black blood. Yes. Very good. The next one is three free throws. Three free throws. Three free throws. 3 free throws. 3 free throws. Three free throws. Very good. Next. This is a sushi chef. This is a sushi tense U. Chef. Not chef. This is a sushi chef. This is a sushi chef. This is a sushi chef. Next one. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Irish wristwatch. Good. The next one. That's a tricky one. I'm going to say it slowly. First, the sixth sick. Cheeks. Sixth sheep sick. Again. The sixth sick sheik. Sixth sheep sick. The sixth sick sheik. 6th sheep sick. The sixth sick Sheik. 6th sheep sick. Are you still with me? You haven't given up? Okay, good. The next one is another one of my favourite. It's tragedy, strategy. Tragedy. Strategy. Tragedy, Strategy. Tragedy, Strategy. Tragedy, Strategy. Tragedy strategy. Toy boat. Oi O. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat. Good. Two more. This one is really good. To practice the lax as in cook and rhythm. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Again. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck Wood. Very good. So the last one is also one of my favorites, and I know I have many, but because they're fun, the last one is this. Betty bought a bit of butter. Betty bought a bit of butter. Betty bought a bit of butter. But she said this butter is bitter. But she said this butter is bitter. If I put it in my batter, if I put it in my batter, it would make my batter bitter. It would make my batter bitter. So she bought some better butter so she bought some better butter. Better than her bitter butter, bitter butter, bitter butter. Better than her bitter butter. And she put it in her batter. Batter. And it made her batter better. Batter better. Let's do it fast. Betty bought a bit of butter, but she said this butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, it would make my batter bitter. So she bought some better butter Better than that bitter butter. And she put it in her batter and it made her batter better. All right, that's it. If you want to get the list of all the tongue twisters, just go to my website. You can click the link right below this video and get directed to my website where I listed all those tongue twisters and more so that you could have a fun and fulfilling practice. I hope you enjoyed this short exercise. You can start your day with a few tongue twisters or practice a few tongue twisters before an important meeting. Or if you want to warm up your pronunciation muscles, I find it really useful. Anyway, have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next practice in the next video. Bye.
