Learning Italian tongue twisters is a funny way to exercise Italian pronunciation and, at the same time, to learn new words and phrases.
In the following video we begin with a famous Italian tongue twister:
Probably this is the most difficult tongue twister in Italian:
Trentatré Trentini entrarono a Trento tutti e trentatré trotterellando.
Thirty-three people from Trento entered the city, all thirty-three waddling.
Moreover, with Italian tongue twisters, you can also learn something about Italy: Trento is a northern Italian city in the Dolomiti area (and, by the way, my hometown):
Click Here to Learn More about this Romantic Town!
4 Popular Italian Tongue Twisters
In this video there are 3 new Italian tongue twisters:
Apelle, figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo i tutti i pesci vennero a galla, per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle, figlio di Apollo.
Apelle, son of Apollo, made a ball of chicken skin and all the fish rose to the surface to see the ball of chicken skin made by Apelle, son of Apollo.
Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa.
Above the bench the goat lives, under the bench, the goat dies.Tre tigri contro tre tigri
Three tigers against three tigers
⇑ Back to the Table of Contents – Italian Tongue Twisters⇑
10 Easy Italian Tongue Twisters
Sette scettici sceicchi sciocchi con la sciatica a Shanghai
Seven skeptical silly sheikhs with sciatica in Shanghai
Il cuoco cuoce in cucina e dice che la cuoca giace e tace perché sua cugina non dica che le piace cuocere in cucina col cuoco.
The cook cooks in the kitchen and says that the cook (female) lies and teas in order to his cousin does not say that she likes to cook in the kitchen with the cook.
Sul mare ci sono nove navi nuove, una delle nove non vuole navigare.
On the sea there are nine new ships, one of the nine do not want to navigate.
Tu che attacchi i tacchi mi attacchi i miei tacchi? Io attaccare i tacchi a te? Attàccateli tu i tuoi tacchi!
You, who attacks the heels, do you attack my heels? Have I to attack the heels to you? Attack your heels by yourself!
Sette acciughette se ne stavano strette strette nelle scatolette… poverette!
Seven little anchovies were crammed very tightly into the cans…poor things!
In un coppo poco cupo, poco pepe pesto cape.
A shallow cup can contain little crushed pepper.
Tito, tu m’hai ritinto il tetto, ma non t’intendi tanto di tetti ritinti.
Tito, you have repainted my roof, but you don’t know so much about repainted roofs.
Centottantotto lire più cinquecentocinquantacinque centesimi.
One hundred and eighty-eight liras plus five hundred and fifty-five cents.
Sotto un uscio tutto liscio, cadde a striscio un grosso guscio.
Under an all-smooth doorway, a large shell fell sideswipe.
Apelle, figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo i tutti i pesci vennero a galla, per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle, figlio di Apollo.
Apelle, son of Apollo, made a ball of chicken skin and all the fish rose to the surface to see the ball of chicken skin made by Apelle, son of Apollo.
More Italian Tongue Twisters
The first tongue twister is very funny and complicated. It contains a made-up word that doesn’t exist in the Italian language:
disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzarsi = to renounce to the position of archbishop of Constantinople
Se l’arcivescovo di Costantinopoli si disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzasse, tu ti
disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzeresti come si è disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzato l’arcivescovo di Costantinopoli?
If the archbishop of Constantinople renounced his position of archbishop, would you renounce your position as archbishop, as the archbishop of Constantinople renounced his position as archbishop?
Chi ama chiama chi ama, chiamami tu che chi ami chiami. Chi amo chiamerò se tu non chiami.
Whoever loves calls who they love, you call me since you call who you love. I’ll call who I love if you don’t call)
Se la serva non ti serve, a che serve che ti serva di una serva che non serve? Serviti di una serva che serve, e se questa non ti serve, serviti dei miei servi.
If the servant doesn’t serve you, what’s the use of a servant who doesn’t serve you? Use a servant who serves, and if you don’t need this one, then use my servants)
In un pozzo poco cupo si specchiò una volta un lupo, che nel poco cupo pozzo andò a battere di cozzo con un cupo tonfo fioco da smaltire a poco a poco ; e credette di azzannare un feroce suo compare; ma rimase brutto e cupo il feroce sciocco lupo.
A wolf was once mirrored, in a rather dark well, which headbutted with a dim thud to be disposed of little by little; and it thought it was biting a ferocious fellow of its; but the ferocious foolish wolf was ugly and grim
Guglielmo coglie ghiaia dagli scogli scagliandola, oltre gli scogli tra mille gorgogli.
Guglielmo grabs gravel from the rocks, hurling it over the rocks in a thousand gurgles.