Tongue-twisters are a lot of fun. I remember several from my childhood, trying to say them faster and faster only to eventually be spitting out vowels and consonants in complete disarray. Then laughing. A lot. I was easily amused.

This dog is also easily amused by tongue-twisters. By mister b 1138 (Flickr: Tongue Twister) [CC BY 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

But it turns out that being able to spit out “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” can also be a pretty handy learning tool. Trying to get those tongue-twisters out, trying to say them faster and faster, forces you to focus on your pronunciation. Which is pretty handy when you’re trying to learn a new language!

So let’s take a look at a few Swedish tongue-twisters or tungvrickare in Swedish. We’ll start with some easy ones, and then next week I’ll post a few more so you have a chance to practice. Click on the links to hear examples.

First: Flyg, fula fluga, flyg och den fula flugan flög! = Fly ugly fly, fly, and the ugly fly flew! (Which is kind of tricky in English even!)

Next: Sex laxar i en laxask. = Six salmon in a salmon box. (Lax is also slang for 1000 SEK, which I suppose you could put in a box designed specifically for 1000 SEK notes.)

Then: Barbros bror badade bara i Barsebäck. = Barbro’s brother swam only in Barsebäck.

And finally: Ställ stället i ställ-stället i stallet istället. = Place the stand in the stand-place in the stall instead.

No problem, right? Check out the second part in this series: Swedish Tongue-Twisters. Part Two.