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Zungenbrecher – Tongue Twister Posted by on Aug 24, 2010 in Language, Traditions

Today I want to introduce some German “Zungenbrecher” to you. I guess they exist in many languages but as you want to learn German this might be a funny alternation. Mostly the Zungenbrecher don´t make many sense but help to train pronunciation…and also laugh about the mistakes you make.

So here are some examples and their translations. Try to start slowly and understand every word. After a while you can try to read and speak them faster. Normally the one who can say them faster than the others without making mistakes is the winner. So good luck and have fun!

Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische – Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze.

Fisherman Fritz fishes fresh fish – fresh fish is fished by fisherman Fritz

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In Ulm und um Ulm und um Ulm herum, reiten drei reitende Reiter herum.

In Ulm and next to Ulm and around Ulm, three riding riders are riding around (Ulm is a city in southern Germany).

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Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut.

Wedding dress stays wedding dress and red cabbage stays red cabbage.

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Der Potsdamer Postkutscher putzt den Potsdamer Postkutschkasten.

The coachman of Potsdam cleans the stage coach of Potsdam (Potsdam is a city near Berlin).

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Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen hinter Fliegen her.

When flies fly behind flies, flies are flying behind flies.

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Auf dem Rasen rasen rasche Hasen – rasche Hasen rasen auf dem Rasen.

On the lawn, rushing rabbits are rushing – rushing rabbits rush on the lawn.

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Zwischen zwei Zweigen zwitschern zwei Zeisige.

Two siskins are tweeting between two branches.

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About the Author: jan

My name is Jan and I live in the south west of Germany. My profession is being a project manager at a company that creates digital media (first of all internet related things). This is my job since over a decade so I´m quite familiar with the web and its tools. Whereat today almost every school kid does. But that´s one of the main reasons why nowadays there are quasi no more limits in the internet and so it can be used for all imaginable types of things. For example learning languages! And that´s where we are at the moment. I first got in touch with Transparent Language when my family and I used to live in France a couple of years ago. I just had a break from work and by coincidence I produced some cultural videos in French. A few months later the whole blogging thing came up and I was lucky to be a part of it. So now my (second) job is to feed you with information, exercises, vocabulary, grammar and stories about Germany and German language. For being a passionate videographer I´m trying to do this more and more by videos. If you have any wishes or needs of topics that should be treated here, please don´t hesitate to contact me via a comment field. I´m open to your suggestions (as long as they are not too individual) and will try to satisfy your needs.

Comments:

  1. Neil Lucock:

    There used to be one that went;
    Zwei schwartz slange sitzen zwichen zwei spitze und zichen
    Please excuse my spelling, it’s “Two black snakes sit between two peaks and hiss”

  2. Tania:

    You simply ROCK ! I am fluent in English ( and BTW an English teacher of Advanced English ). I am from São Paulo, Brazil — this large, chaotic city that I adore — and a student of German, having just been promoted to B.1.2 at Goethe-Institut.

    I’ve been copying and studying your posts. Thank you SO VERY MUCH for them. Keep up the excellent job !