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Trava-Línguas em inglês: Betty Botter

Tongue twisterMerriam-Webster dictionary defines a tongue twister as “a word, phrase, or sentence difficult to articulate readily because of a succession of similar chiefly consonantal sounds varied by small changes“.

OK, translated to plain English, that means a bunch of words that are really hard to say.

Now, for voice-over professionals, tongue twisters are a great way to keep the mouth in shape. And they can help English students, too. After all, if you can say a tongue twister, you can say just about anything.

Every Monday for the next few weeks I’m going to post a new tongue twister here on English Experts. You can click on the audio link below the tongue twister to hear me do my best to read it out loud. Listen to me and then try to repeat the tongue twister yourself.

If it doesn’t come easy at first, don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it until you get it and have faith that your efforts will pay off.

We’ll get started with a famous tongue twister called “Betty Botter.”

Here goes.

Betty Botter bought some butter,
But, she said, “the butter’s bitter;
If I put it in my batter,
It will make my batter bitter;
But a bit of better butter,
That would make my batter better.
So she bought a bit of butter,
Better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter,
And the batter was not bitter;
So t’was better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

See you next week!

24.jpg Autor: Jason Bermingham já gravou locuções em inglês para a Samsung, Itaú, Banco Real, TV Cultura, MTV International, São Paulo Turismo, Oxford University Press e CNA, entre outros. Ele empresta a sua voz aos tweets diários da revista Speak Up (www.twitter.com/revistaspeakup). Outros textos do autor.

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Comentários (33)

1 28/09/09

Flavia disse:

It reminded me of an article written by Alessandro some time ago, where he mentioned that we’d better warn our families about the fact that we’re practicing English via Internet, otherwise they would think we are getting crazy… Imagine what they would think if they heard me reapeating “butter-bitter-batter-bitter, better….” :D
Excellent article, Jason. Thanks a lot.

2 28/09/09

Vinicius disse:

I remember another tongue twister that I learned when I was 10… “She sells sea shells by the sea shore”.
Thanks.

3 28/09/09

Susana disse:

Oh my God!

If tongue twister is difficult in portuguese, in english it is very very difficult. But we need to try… If we don’t try, we won’t get it.
It can be funny too :)

Thanks for every article.

4 28/09/09

Ana Cristina disse:

Muito legal!!!!! Adorei!

5 28/09/09

Stella disse:

Is very difficult. rsrsrs

6 28/09/09

Mayara de Castro disse:

Thanks, Jason.
Very funny! It’s a real tongue twister!

7 28/09/09

Vera lúcia Pinto Campos disse:

This is an excellent activity to practice pronunciation in English. Thanks. I have practice it.

8 28/09/09

Rodrigo disse:

Gostei, mas me explica uma coisa, na frase “So t’was better Betty Botter”, o que significa t’was ?

9 28/09/09

Cida disse:

are you kidding???
so difficult, but funny…
good for kids..can be different during the classes at schools…great idea!
byeeeeeeeee

10 28/09/09

Anderson disse:

Pretty good dude, thanks!! By the way, what’s the meaning of the contraction t’was, maybe it was ?? Once more thanks.

11 28/09/09

Sonia Mara disse:

Cool! And that’s not so difficult as I thought …

12 28/09/09

Wilson disse:

This is really difficult to pronounce.

13 28/09/09

Lydiane disse:

I love it!!!! It’s great to improve our English!!!

Thanks Jason!

14 28/09/09

Vera Abreu disse:

Excellent article, Jason. Thanks a lot.

15 28/09/09

joao mino disse:

magnific! =D

16 29/09/09

Jason Bermingham disse:

I see a few people asked about ’twas. (The apostrophe should have gone before the t and not after it, since that’s where the missing letter would have gone.) Anyway, yes, ’twas is a contraction of it and was. ‘Twas isn’t common in modern English, but it helps in this tongue-twister by making “it was” one syllable instead of two! The most famous ’twas can be found in the poem, ‘Twas the night before Christmas…

17 29/09/09

João B. L. Ghizoni disse:

Wonderful article, Jason! Congratulations and thanks! And your reading it was fantastic as well! The speed and rhythm were awesome!

Sonia Mara, I’m appalled that you didn’t find it difficult. You must be a genius!

18 29/09/09

Nestor disse:

caraca. adorei esse trava-língua. Show de bola!!!!!!
obrigado mais uma vez

19 29/09/09

Thyago Hércules disse:

Hi there!
It’s very nice! I liked very much (and I laughed too) hey you saying this so fast is very funny! it looks like a radio with technicals troubles!! just kidding!)

So, it is important we learn it ‘cuz help us to pronounce better some words that are so hard..

That’s it!!

Seeyabye!

20 29/09/09

Valeria N. Gonçalves disse:

nossaaaaa!!! São tantos “b” que até confundi a audição.

21 29/09/09

Frederico disse:

Awesome! Thanks!

22 01/10/09

Gabriel disse:

‘Twas realy nice…
I’m new here, but I know much about english and I would like to share and improve it.
N’ this tongue twister’s very good.
Thanks a lot n’ I’m waiting for the next one…

Congratulations for what you’ve done here…

23 03/10/09

Célia Dias disse:

Um pouco dificil, mas muito bom…..vai me ajudar bastante. Muito obrigada e parabéns pelo trabalho de vocês!!!

24 04/10/09

fernanda disse:

Ohh, that’s nice , amazing ..

25 04/10/09

Dicas de Inglês :: Trava-Línguas em inglês: Woodchuck disse:

[...] This week we continue our quest to say things that are so hard to say that everything else we say sounds easy. What did I just say? I said we get to learn another tongue-twister! [...]

26 04/10/09

Ana Caroline disse:

Oh, it´s so dificult!!! But I really like doing it!!!

27 16/10/09

marciano barroso dumont disse:

ola gosto muito da dicas de ingles o trava lingua do ”woodchuck” esta traduzido como picapau ,
minha pergunta é ”woodchuck” nao seriá castor?
e ”woodpecker” picapau ???
mais o trava lingua fuciona do mesmo geito
obrigado ate mais

28 20/10/09

dani disse:

blimey!
very good!
I loved!!!

29 13/11/09

Clarice lopes disse:

muito bom mas um pouco dificil ainda pra mim very good!

30 21/11/09

Gabi disse:

Este site é demais! Alessandro está de parabéns e Jason tem uma voz maravilhosa! Só lamento que as pessoas querem aprender inglês sem antes saberem português corretamente!

31 20/01/10

Francinaldo disse:

Daqui a uns vinte anos ou mais eu conseguirei ler como o Jason.

Muito bom. Espetacular. Engraçado e divertido.
Parabéns!
Gosto muito dos “Trava-Línguas”.

32 25/03/10

Marco brainiac disse:

Jason they are so fantastics!

Thanks a lot!

33 24/05/10

Sula disse:

My goodness, it´s terrific!!!
realmente nao eh tao dificil como pensava…
Congrats Jason!!!!
God bless u!

Equipe do English Experts disse:

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