l r, v w and s sh – Practice these sounds with English tongue twisters

Do you find it hard to pronounce the English v and w sounds? Or maybe the l and r sounds? Or perhaps s and sh are tricky? Or perhaps you just want to improve your pronunciation and diction and have some fun with English tongue twisters? Then this video is for you.
We’ll practice phrases that even native speakers find hard to say quickly like very well, red lorry yellow lorry and she sells sea shells.

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Tongue Twisters Video Script

Hello everyone. Welcome to Simple English Videos. I’m Vicki and I’m British.
And I’m Jay and I’m American. And today we’ve got some more English tongue twisters for you to try.
Tongue twisters are short phrases that are hard to pronounce.
We find them hard and we’re English speakers.
So they’re really hard if you’re learning English, but great practice because they get your mouth muscles moving.
We’ve got some learners helping us today. Let’s see them in action.
OK, here’s the first one.

Very well, very well, very well.
Very well, very well, very well, very well.

He had to think really hard there.
Yeah, he did well because he comes from Finland. In Finnish, w is pronounced a bit like an English v sound.
So this is really hard for him.
Yeah, and there are other languages where v sounds like f. fff.
So this tongue twister is good practice?
Yes, and it’s good for everyone if you want to pronounce clearly. Actors do exercises like this before they go on stage.
It improves their diction – how clearly they say things.
Exactly.
You need to start slowly and then gradually speed up.
For v, you want your top teeth to touch your bottom lip but keep your lips relaxed. V – v – you should feel a little vibration there.
V. What about w?
At the start of making the w sound, you need to make your lips round and a little hard.
Like you’re going to kiss someone.
Yeah. W is a short sound. W w
V. W. V. W. Very well. Very well.
If you look in a mirror, you should see your lips go round at the start of ‘well’. Well.
Try saying it with our learners.

Very well, very well, very well.
Very well, very well, very well.
Very well, very well, very well, very well.

They said it very well! OK. What’s the next one?
Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Lorry. That’s a British word. We say truck in American English.

Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.

It’s not easy.
Yeah. It’s good practice for l and r sounds.
l – yellow, l – yellow.
With l the tongue touches the top of your mouth just behind your top teeth.
And with R it doesn’t touch. r – red, r – red
Yeah, the tongue doesn’t touch. And your lips are a little rounded at the start. Red, red.
Say it with our learners.

Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.
Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry. Whoo! That’s a tongue twister. Yeah!

It IS a tongue twister!
Yeah. It’s hard.
I’ve got an easy way to say it in American English.
What’s that?
Red truck, yellow truck, red truck, yellow truck.
That’s cheating. OK, last one.
What is it?
It’s a very famous tongue twister. Let’s hear it.

Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.
Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.

So Sally is a girl’s name and the shore is the land along the edge of the sea or ocean.
It’s where the land meets the water. I think we say the word shore a little differently in American and British.
Shore.
Shore.
Shore.
I pronounce the r more strongly. Shore.
And in American English you talk about going to the shore for a vacation.
Yeah, and what do you say?
In British English we talk about going to the seaside for a holiday.
Let’s hear you say the tongue twister.
Sally sells sea shells.
Sally sells sea shells.
You’ve got to move quickly between sh and s for this one. S – your tongue is forward, and then you pull it up and back a little for sh.
s sh s sh.

Sally sells sea shells by the seashore.
Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Whoo! Brilliant.

I think we need some music for this one. What do you think?
Yeah, let’s get some mood music. Sea shore music.
OK. See if you can say this rhyhme with us.

She sells sea shells on the sea shore,
and the shells she sells are sea shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea shells on the sea shore.
Then I’m sure she sells sea shore shells.

OK, that was pretty easy, I think.
Do you think they say it faster?
Sure you can!
OK then. Let’s try. Are you ready?

She sells sea shells on the sea shore,
and the shells she sells are sea shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea shells on the sea shore.
Then I’m sure she sells sea shore shells.

Could you keep up with us? You can play it again if it was hard.
We need to say a big thank you to all the learners who appeared in this video.
Yeah, you were great. Thank you very much.
I think we’ve finished, haven’t we?
Yeah. But we’ll be back next week with a new video.
So make sure you subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss it.
See you next week. Bye everyone.
Bye-bye.
Click here to see more pronunciation videos
Click here to see a funny tongue twister song