Vocal Diction Exercises: How Actors Improve Speech Clarity
By Will R. Boyd, MFA | Updated: November 28, 2025
Will Boyd performing at SCAD
Don't mumble. The following tongue twisters are popularly used in drama training to improve speech clarity and articulation. Make sure that you over-enunciate every consonant to get the full benefit of the exercise. You can also try varying your pace (slow to fast), volume (quiet to loud), and pitch (low to high).
- Paper poppy, baby bubble (repeat)
- Red leather, yellow leather (repeat)
- Red lorry, yellow lorry (repeat)
- Rubber baby buggy bumpers (repeat)
- Will you, won't you? (Don’t let the t become a ch sound)
- Could you, would you? (Don’t let the d become a j sound)
- You know New York,
You need New York,
You know you need unique New York. - Peter Piper the pickled pepper picker picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper the pickled pepper picker picked.
If Peter Piper the pickled pepper picker picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where is the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper the pickled pepper picker picked? - What a to-do to die today at a minute or two to two;
A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.
We'll beat a tattoo at a quarter to two
A rat-tat-tat - tat-tat-tat - tat-tat-tattoo
And the dragon will come when he hears the drum
At a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two. - A box of biscuits,
A box of mixed biscuits,
And a box of Bixby's best biscuits. - Six slippery snails slid silently seaward.
Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards. - The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick
- She sells seashells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells. - Six thick thistle sticks.
Six thick thistles stick. - A snake sneaks to seek a snack.
- The lithe police dismisseth us.
- I pushed a pup up a parliament street.
- Eleven benevolent elephants.
Eleven malevolent elephants.
Having trouble with sloppy S sounds? Check out this video.