The following examples of alliteration used in the 20 tongue twisters and 7 activities are fun, although not easy, to recite.

Alliteration and Tongue Twisters

Alliteration adds descriptive images to however it is associated with. Examples of alliteration can be found in titles, names, and brands. The reason alliteration is used is because it is a great marketing tool. It helps make them more memorable.

Tongue twisters are examples of alliteration. They are easy to remember (but difficult to say) because of the alliteration in the first syllable of related words.

In fact, I put the terms kid’s alliteration tongue twisters together to help children remember what alliteration is. The term “Tongue Twister” itself, was created using alliteration.

What is Alliteration?

Alliteration is the use of the same consonant sounds in words that are near each other. It is the sound, not the letter, that is important: therefore ‘candy’ and ‘Cindy’ do not alliterate, but ‘cool’ and ‘kids’ do. 

Shel Silverstein used alliteration in some of his popular children’s poems which you might like to share with your children or students. 

What is a Tongue Twister?

A tongue twister is defined as a phrase or sentence that is hard to speak fast, usually because of alliteration or a sequence of nearly similar sounds.  Read this fun tongue twister poem with your children.

Examples of Alliteration and Learning

A note to students: The following 20 alliteration tongue twisters may help with homework assignments. Please review these and then create your own – do your own homework! I know teachers who teach lessons on alliteration check my examples of alliteration in this post and others on NanasCorner.com. Don’t copy unless your homework assignment tells you to do so.

A note to parents of younger children:  Alliteration is a great exercise to help young kids learn phonetic alphabet awareness and develop speech, concentration, and memory skills.

Examples of alliteration such as tongue twisters can help make learning to read and write a fun activity in the classroom. It is also a fun activity for grandparents and grandkids to practice together.

7 Alliteration Tongue Twister Activities

3 Starter Activities To Use As Examples of Alliteration…

  • How many characters with alliterative names can you list? Start with Mickey Mouse…
  • What brands can you think of that use repetitive consonants in their ads? I just heard Kohl’s Cash…
  • Entertainers use alliteration so you’ll be able to remember their names. Who comes to mind? Billy Boyd (Lord of the Rings)…

4 Alphabet Tongue Twister Activities

1  Create one line Alphabet Tongue Twisters with young children – they’ll love being very silly. I guarantee you they will be laughing before they’re done.

  • Tongue twisters for kids, when used with chosen letters from the alphabet and created with their beginning consonant sounds, help in learning the alphabet and developing auditory processing and awareness.
  • A couple of fun tongue twisters I can remember from my childhood for S and P are She sells sea shells by the seashore and Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
  • Here is a new fun tongue twister using alliteration: Happy hippos who hop happily have hippy hips (well, not a famous alphabet tongue twister, but I wanted to make one).

I’ve created a few ABC tongue twister examples of alliteration using one line ABC:

A: An ape ate Ace’s acorn.
B: Baby Bobby bed bounced better by bedtime before Billy bounced.
C: Cory collected cola cans counting continuously.
D: Dan’s dad drastically dropped a dozen dipped donuts.

2  For the younger kids with a limited vocabulary, it is okay for them to make up words and to do it phonetically.

  • Their tongue twisters can turn out quite funny and have everyone laughing together. You can tell them to make silly tongue twisters to make you all laugh.
  • After your children make up tongue twisters using alliteration, have them challenge you to repeat them three times fast without stumbling, or read the longer tongue twister alliterations as fast as you can without making mistakes.
  • When you recite the silly tongue twisters, be silly yourself and they’ll enjoy it even more! The sillier the better! Actually the best tongue twisters are the funny tongue twisters. Alliteration helps to do just that.

3  For older children, do it this way:

  • Players pick a letter…perhaps the initial of their name…and try to write or say the longest sentence in which almost every word starts with that letter. The sentence should sound as if it makes sense, even if it is not sensible.

4  Another way to play the game in the car using examples of alliteration…

    • Starting with the person behind the driver, have him call out a single letter.
    • Immediately, the person to his right must make up a tongue twister sentence.
    • The person to his right, then must recite the alphabet tongue twister 3 times fast.
      • Play until everyone has had a turn reciting a tongue twister.
      • All the words in the sentence must begin with the same letter.

20 Examples of Alliteration: Tongue Twisters

Well known kid’s alliteration tongue twisters are found below. See how many times it takes you to read these fast without making a mistake!

Tongue Twister #1

I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s mate,
And I’m only plucking pheasants ’cause the pheasant plucker’s late.
I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s son,
And I’m only plucking pheasants till the pheasant pluckers come.

Tongue Twister #2

A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot
Said the two to the tutor
“Is it tougher to toot
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?”

Tongue Twister #3

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Tongue Twister #4

A certain young fellow named Beebee
Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe
“But,” he said. “I must see
What the minister’s fee be
Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee”

Tongue Twister #5

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck
If a woodchuck would chuck wood.

Tongue Twister #6

I thought a thought.
But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.

Tongue Twister #7

A skunk sat on a stump.
The stump thought the skunk stunk.
The skunk thought the stump stunk .
What stunk the skunk or the stump?

Tongue Twister #8

If one doctor doctors another doctor
Does the doctor who doctors the doctor
Doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors?
Or does the doctor doctor the way
The doctor who doctors doctors?

The doctoring doctor doctors the doctor the way
The doctoring doctor wants to doctor the doctor.
Not the way the doctored doctor wants to be doctored.

Tongue Twister #9

Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See’s saw
Before See sawed Soar’s seesaw,
See’s saw would not have sawed
Soar’s seesaw.
So See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
Just because See’s saw sawed
Soar’s seesaw!

Tongue Twister #10

I cannot bear to see a bear
Bear down upon a hare.
When bare of hair he strips the hare,
Right there I cry, “Forbear!”

How are you doing with these kid’s alliteration tongue twisters, so far? Is your tongue twisted?

Tongue Twister #11

If Freaky Fred Found Fifty Feet of Fruit
And Fed Forty Feet to his Friend Frank
How many Feet of Fruit did Freaky Fred Find?

Tongue Twister #12

Did Dick Pickens prick his pinkie
Pickling cheap cling peaches in an inch of Pinch
Or framing his famed French finch photos?

Tongue Twister #13

Dr. Johnson and Mr. Johnson,
After great consideration,
Came to the conclusion
That the Indian nation
Beyond the Indian Ocean
Is back in education
Because the chief occupation is cultivation.

Tongue Twister #14

A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad’s heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn’t please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.

Tongue Twister #15

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep.
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed
shilly-shallied south.
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack;
Sheep should sleep in a shed.

Tongue Twister #16

You’ve no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light’s light’s a slight light,
And tonight’s a night that’s light.
When a night’s light, like tonight’s light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.

Tongue Twister #17

Of all the felt I ever felt,
I never felt a piece of felt
Which felt as fine as that felt felt,
When first I felt that felt hat’s felt.

Tongue Twister #18

A flea and a fly in a flue
Said the fly “Oh what should we do”
Said the flea” Let us fly
Said the fly”Let us flee”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue

Tongue Twister #19

If a Hottentot taught
A Hottentot tot to talk
Ere the tot could totter,
Ought the Hottentot tot
Be taught to say ought or naught
Or what ought to be taught ‘er?

Tongue Twister #20

Ed Nott was shot and Sam Shott was not.
So it is better to be Shott than Nott.
Some say Nott was not shot.
But Shott says he shot Nott.
Either the shot Shott shot at Nott was not shot, or Nott was shot.
If the shot Shott shot shot Nott, Nott was shot.
But if the shot Shott shot shot Shott, the shot was Shott, not Nott.
However, the shot Shott shot shot not Shott – but Nott.
So, Ed Nott was shot and that’s hot! Is it not?

Tongue Twisters are so much fun! Kid’s alliteration tongue twisters can be used as an ice breaker for the first days of class, a sleep over, birthday party, or a stuck-in-traffic car ride. You’ll find many more fun tongue twisters on AmericanFolklore.net.