Japanese Tongue Twisters: 25 Hayakuchi Kotoba, Easy to Hard

Japanese tongue twisters are called hayakuchi kotoba (早口言葉), literally “fast mouth words”: short phrases packed with repeating, easily confused sounds that you try to say quickly and clearly. This page gives you 25 of them from easy to hard, each with romaji, the Japanese, the meaning, the exact sounds it trains, plus a free printable practice sheet and a slow-to-fast method that actually works.

What Are Japanese Tongue Twisters (Hayakuchi Kotoba)?

Hayakuchi kotoba work the same way English tongue twisters do. You take sounds that sit close together in the mouth, repeat them in a tight pattern, and try to keep every one clean at speed.

The difference is what Japanese does with those sounds. Japanese is built on mora, small beats of roughly equal length. Every kana is one beat, the small tsu (っ) is a beat of silence, and a long vowel is two beats.

That timing is where most twisters get you. It is not just the sounds; it is holding the rhythm steady while the sounds change.

You will see three ingredients over and over:

• Minimal pairs: words that differ by one sound, like momo (peach) and sumomo (Japanese plum).
• Palatalized sounds (the ya, yu, yo combinations): kya, kyo, sha, pyo, which are easy to flatten into ka, ko, sa, po.
• Small tsu pauses (っ): a tiny stop that changes the word, as in tokkyo versus tokyo.

These phrases are a normal part of growing up in Japan. Children chant them, television shows use them as games, and voice actors and announcers use them as warmups.

Why Practicing Them Helps Your Japanese

Tongue twisters are not a magic trick. They are just a very concentrated form of pronunciation practice, and that concentration is the point.

They isolate the sounds you blur. A whole conversation gives you one or two kya sounds. One twister gives you six in five seconds.

They train even timing. Because you are chasing speed, any beat you rush or stretch becomes obvious. Even mora length is one of the biggest things separating natural Japanese from careful textbook Japanese.

They build mouth stamina. The muscles that make Japanese consonants sit differently than the ones you use in English. Repetition makes those positions automatic.

They are fun and short. Ten focused minutes is a real session. That matters more than any theory, because the practice you actually do is the practice that helps.

There is no single right way to use them. Some people warm up with one before study, some race a friend, some record themselves once a week. Do what feels right for you.

All 25 Japanese Tongue Twisters at a Glance

Here is the full list in one place, sorted by level, with the sounds each one targets. Use it to pick a twister that trains the sound you personally find hardest.

#	Romaji	Japanese	Level	Sound focus	Meaning
1	Basu gasu bakuhatsu	バスガス爆発	Easy	ba / ga / su	Bus gas explosion
2	Nama mugi, nama gome, nama tamago	生麦生米生卵	Easy	na / ma / ga	Raw wheat, raw rice, raw egg
3	Aka pajama, ao pajama, ki pajama	赤パジャマ青パジャマ黄パジャマ	Easy	pa / ja / a-o	Red pajamas, blue pajamas, yellow pajamas
4	Akamakigami, aomakigami, kimakigami	赤巻紙青巻紙黄巻紙	Easy	ma / ki / ga	Red roll paper, blue roll paper, yellow roll paper
5	Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi	すもももももももものうち	Easy	su / mo	Plums and peaches are both kinds of peach
6	Niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru	庭には二羽鶏がいる	Easy	ni / wa	There are two chickens in the garden
7	Takegaki ni take tatekaketa	竹垣に竹立てかけた	Easy	ta / te / ke	I leaned bamboo against the bamboo fence
8	Kono kugi wa hikinukinikui kugi da	この釘は引き抜きにくい釘だ	Easy	ku / ki / ni	This nail is a hard-to-pull-out nail
9	Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da	隣の客はよく柿食う客だ	Easy	ka / kya / ku	The guest next door is a guest who eats a lot of persimmons
10	Kaeru pyoko pyoko, mi pyoko pyoko, awasete pyoko pyoko, mu pyoko pyoko	蛙ぴょこぴょこ三ぴょこぴょこ合わせてぴょこぴょこ六ぴょこぴょこ	Medium	pyo / ko / mu	Frogs hop hop, three hop hop, together hop hop, six hop hop
11	Bouzu ga byoubu ni jouzu ni bouzu no e o kaita	坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた	Medium	bou / byou / jou	A monk skillfully drew a monk on a folding screen
12	Uraniwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru	裏庭には二羽、庭には二羽鶏がいる	Medium	ni / wa / ra	In the back garden there are two, in the front garden there are two chickens
13	Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku	東京特許許可局	Medium	kyo / kya / small tsu	Tokyo Patent Approval Office
14	Kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa no wa take tatekaketakatta kara take tatekaketa no da	この竹垣に竹立てかけたのは竹立てかけたかったから竹立てかけたのだ	Medium	ta / ke / ka	The reason I leaned bamboo on this bamboo fence is that I wanted to lean bamboo on it
15	Buta ga buta o butta node butareta buta ga butta buta o butta	豚が豚をぶったのでぶたれた豚がぶった豚をぶった	Medium	bu / ta / small tsu	A pig hit a pig, so the hit pig hit the pig that hit it
16	Shinsetsu shinsatsushitsu	新設診察室	Medium	shin / sa / tsu	Newly built examination room
17	Kono sushi wa sukoshi sumeshi ga sukunai	この寿司は少し酢飯が少ない	Medium	su / shi / ko	This sushi has a little too little vinegared rice
18	Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku kyokuchou	東京特許許可局局長	Hard	kyo / kyoku / chou	The director of the Tokyo Patent Approval Office
19	Shansonkashu shinshun shanson shou	シャンソン歌手新春シャンソンショー	Hard	sha / shu / shin	A chanson singer’s New Year chanson show
20	Tanuki hyappiki, hashi hyakuzen, tenmoku hyappai, bou happyappon	狸百匹箸百膳天目百杯棒八百本	Hard	hya / ppa / small tsu	A hundred raccoon dogs, a hundred sets of chopsticks, a hundred tea bowls, eight hundred sticks
21	Oyagame no senaka ni kogame o nosete, kogame no senaka ni magogame o nosete	親亀の背中に子亀を乗せて子亀の背中に孫亀を乗せて	Hard	ka / ga / me	Put the baby turtle on the parent turtle’s back, put the grandchild turtle on the baby turtle’s back
22	Josetsusha josetsu sagyouchuu	除雪車除雪作業中	Hard	jo / se / sha	Snowplow, snow clearing in progress
23	Kossoshoushou soshou shouso	骨粗鬆症訴訟勝訴	Hard	so / sho / shou	Winning an osteoporosis lawsuit
24	Aburi karubi	炙りカルビ	Hard	ri / ru / bi	Seared short rib
25	Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku kyokuchou kyou kyuukyo kyoka kyakka	東京特許許可局局長今日急遽許可却下	Hard	kyo / kyu / kya	Today the Tokyo Patent Approval Office director abruptly rejected the approval

Easy Japanese Tongue Twisters (With Romaji and Meaning)

Start here even if you are past beginner level. Speed on easy phrases teaches you more than stumbling through hard ones.

1. Basu gasu bakuhatsu バスガス爆発 Bus gas explosion. Trains: ba, ga, su alternating. Audio note: keep the su in basu light. Native speakers barely voice that final u, so it sounds close to “bas”. Say it three times in a row for the real challenge.

2. Nama mugi, nama gome, nama tamago 生麦生米生卵 Raw wheat, raw rice, raw egg. Trains: na and ma switching, plus the g row. Audio note: the g in nama gome is often softened toward a nasal sound in Tokyo speech. Either version is fine; keep the three beats of na-ma equal each time.

3. Aka pajama, ao pajama, ki pajama 赤パジャマ青パジャマ黄パジャマ Red pajamas, blue pajamas, yellow pajamas. Trains: pa plus ja, and the a-o vowel glide. Audio note: ao is two clean beats, a then o, not one blended sound. That is where most people slip.

4. Akamakigami, aomakigami, kimakigami 赤巻紙青巻紙黄巻紙 Red roll paper, blue roll paper, yellow roll paper. Trains: ma, ki, ga in a repeating frame. Audio note: the shared makigami ending lets your mouth go on autopilot, then the color changes and you trip. Stress the first beat of each color.

5. Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi すもももももももものうち Plums and peaches are both kinds of peach. Trains: su versus mo, and mora counting. Audio note: written in kana it is almost all も. Count the beats rather than reading by feel: su-mo-mo-mo / mo-mo-mo / mo-mo-no-u-chi.

6. Niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru 庭には二羽鶏がいる There are two chickens in the garden. Trains: ni and wa in three different jobs. Audio note: niwa is the garden, ni wa is the topic phrase, niwa is the counter for two birds. Same sounds, different grammar, which is the whole joke.

7. Takegaki ni take tatekaketa 竹垣に竹立てかけた I leaned bamboo against the bamboo fence. Trains: ta, te, ke jumping around. Audio note: your tongue has to reset to the same spot for every t and k. Slow it right down and feel that alternation before you speed up.

8. Kono kugi wa hikinukinikui kugi da この釘は引き抜きにくい釘だ This nail is a hard-to-pull-out nail. Trains: ku, ki, ni clusters. Audio note: hikinukinikui is one long word. Break it as hi-ki-nu-ki-ni-ku-i and give each beat equal room.

9. Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da 隣の客はよく柿食う客だ The guest next door is a guest who eats a lot of persimmons. Trains: ka versus kya, plus ku and kuu. Audio note: this is the classic ka / kya drill. Kyaku has a y glide, kaki does not. If they sound the same, slow down until they do not.

Intermediate Japanese Tongue Twisters (With Romaji and Meaning)

These are longer, and they add small tsu pauses and long vowels. Length is its own difficulty: you have to hold the rhythm for five or six seconds.

10. Kaeru pyoko pyoko, mi pyoko pyoko, awasete pyoko pyoko, mu pyoko pyoko 蛙ぴょこぴょこ三ぴょこぴょこ合わせてぴょこぴょこ六ぴょこぴょこ Frogs hop hop, three hop hop, together hop hop, six hop hop. Trains: pyo, one of the hardest palatalized sounds. Audio note: pyo is one beat, not “pi-yo”. A children’s favorite, and still hard for adults.

11. Bouzu ga byoubu ni jouzu ni bouzu no e o kaita 坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた A monk skillfully drew a monk on a folding screen. Trains: bou, byou, jou, all long vowels. Audio note: bouzu has a plain bo; byoubu has a y glide. Hold every long vowel for two full beats or the phrase collapses.

12. Uraniwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru 裏庭には二羽、庭には二羽鶏がいる In the back garden there are two, in the front garden there are two chickens. Trains: ni, wa, and a Japanese ra. Audio note: the ra in uraniwa is a light tap of the tongue behind the front teeth, between an English r, l, and d. Take the comma pause; it is allowed.

13. Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku 東京特許許可局 Tokyo Patent Approval Office. Trains: kyo, kya, and the small tsu. Audio note: no such office exists; the phrase was built purely for sound. Tokkyo needs a real silent beat on the small tsu, and Toukyou is four beats: to-u-kyo-u.

14. Kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa no wa take tatekaketakatta kara take tatekaketa no da この竹垣に竹立てかけたのは竹立てかけたかったから竹立てかけたのだ The reason I leaned bamboo on this bamboo fence is that I wanted to lean bamboo on it. Trains: ta, ke, ka over a long stretch. Audio note: this is the long form of number 7. Chunk it at no wa and kara, then join the chunks.

15. Buta ga buta o butta node butareta buta ga butta buta o butta 豚が豚をぶったのでぶたれた豚がぶった豚をぶった A pig hit a pig, so the hit pig hit the pig that hit it. Trains: bu, ta, and the small tsu in butta. Audio note: buta (pig) and butta (hit) differ only by that tiny stop. Make the pause real and the meaning survives.

16. Shinsetsu shinsatsushitsu 新設診察室 Newly built examination room. Trains: shin, sa, tsu, shi. Audio note: tsu is one sound, not “t + su”. The n in shin is its own beat.

17. Kono sushi wa sukoshi sumeshi ga sukunai この寿司は少し酢飯が少ない This sushi has a little too little vinegared rice. Trains: su, shi, ko. Audio note: Japanese u is flatter than English “oo”, with lips relaxed. Four different su words in a row make any wobble obvious.

Hardest Japanese Tongue Twisters (With Romaji and Meaning)

These are the ones native speakers use to challenge each other. Expect to fail a few times; that is the game.

18. Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku kyokuchou 東京特許許可局局長 The director of the Tokyo Patent Approval Office. Trains: kyo stacked with kyoku and chou. Audio note: adding kyokuchou means two kyoku sounds land back to back. Get number 13 clean first.

19. Shansonkashu shinshun shanson shou シャンソン歌手新春シャンソンショー A chanson singer’s New Year chanson show. Trains: sha, shu, sho, shin. Audio note: written mostly in katakana, so it doubles as reading practice. The trap is shinshun landing between two shanson.

20. Tanuki hyappiki, hashi hyakuzen, tenmoku hyappai, bou happyappon 狸百匹箸百膳天目百杯棒八百本 A hundred raccoon dogs, a hundred sets of chopsticks, a hundred tea bowls, eight hundred sticks. Trains: hya, ppa, and counter changes. Audio note: this one is also a counter lesson. The counter word changes shape after 百, which is exactly why it is hard.

21. Oyagame no senaka ni kogame o nosete, kogame no senaka ni magogame o nosete 親亀の背中に子亀を乗せて子亀の背中に孫亀を乗せて Put the baby turtle on the parent turtle’s back, put the grandchild turtle on the baby turtle’s back. Trains: ka, ga, me and phrase memory. Audio note: more a memory test than a mouth test. The pattern repeats with one word changed, so it is easy to loop by accident.

22. Josetsusha josetsu sagyouchuu 除雪車除雪作業中 Snowplow, snow clearing in progress. Trains: jo, se, sha, tsu. Audio note: short and brutal. Josetsusha and josetsu start identically, and your mouth wants to add the sha both times.

23. Kossoshoushou soshou shouso 骨粗鬆症訴訟勝訴 Winning an osteoporosis lawsuit. Trains: so, sho, shou, small tsu. Audio note: every syllable is an s sound with a slightly different shape. Say it at one third speed first and mark which beats are long.

24. Aburi karubi 炙りカルビ Seared short rib. Trains: Japanese ri, ru, and bi. Audio note: only two words, and still famously hard. The r sounds are light taps, and repeating the phrase five times fast turns it into mush.

25. Toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku kyokuchou kyou kyuukyo kyoka kyakka 東京特許許可局局長今日急遽許可却下 Today the Tokyo Patent Approval Office director abruptly rejected the approval. Trains: kyo, kyu, kya in one chain. Audio note: the final boss. Nine k-glide beats in a row. Learn it as three chunks: the office, the director, the rejection.

Printable Japanese Tongue Twisters Practice Sheet

Saying these out loud is easier when you are not scrolling a phone. A paper copy lets you mark the beats, circle the sounds you miss, and check off the ones you have cleared.

Our free printable Japanese writing practice sheets give you kana grids you can use two ways:

1. Write the twister out in hiragana and katakana, one kana per square. One square is one beat, so the grid shows you the rhythm.
2. Mark the traps as you go: circle each small tsu (っ), underline each ya, yu, yo combination, and draw a line over each long vowel.

Copying by hand is slower than reading, and that is the useful part. Writing tokkyo out forces you to notice the small tsu that your mouth keeps skipping.

Print a fresh sheet for each level. Easy nine on one page, intermediate eight on another, hard eight on a third.

How to Practice a Tongue Twister Step by Step

Most lists hand you the phrases and stop. Here is a repeatable method you can run on any twister in about ten minutes.

1. Read it slowly, syllable by syllable. Half speed, one mora at a time, tiny pause between beats. Accuracy first. If you stumble, go slower still.
2. Break it into chunks. Split it into two or three pieces and drill each piece alone. Then join them one at a time. Mistakes cluster at the seams, so repeat the joins.
3. Listen and shadow a native speaker. Play a recording and speak along about half a second behind it. Copy the rhythm and the pitch, not just the sounds.
4. Speed up in small steps. Clean at slow speed, then a little faster, three clean runs at each speed. If you trip, drop back one step. Small increments beat rushing.
5. Record yourself and compare. One take on your phone, played next to the native audio. Pick one sound to fix, then run it again.
6. Come back tomorrow. Two minutes the next day locks in more than twenty minutes today. Short daily runs beat one long session.

There is no single right way to do this; some people prefer to shadow from the very first minute. Do what feels right for you.

Common Sounds That Trip People Up

Almost every twister on this page targets one of these. Pick your weak spot and pick the matching drill.

Sound trap	What goes wrong	How it should feel	Best twisters
ka / kya	The y glide disappears, so kyaku sounds like kaku	Tongue rises to the roof of the mouth as the k releases, all in one beat	9, 13, 25
small tsu (っ)	The silent beat gets skipped, so butta becomes buta	A full beat of held silence, mouth already in position	13, 15, 20, 23
long vowels (ou, uu)	Two beats get squashed into one, so bouzu becomes bozu	Hold the vowel for the length of two kana	11, 13, 18
r row (ra, ri, ru)	Comes out as an English r or l	A single light tap of the tongue tip just behind the front teeth	12, 21, 24
pyo / hya / sha	Split into two beats, “pi-yo” instead of pyo	One beat, glide included	10, 19, 20
su / shi	English “oo” and a heavy sh	Relaxed lips, flat u, light sh	16, 17, 22
n (ん)	Rushed through as part of the next syllable	Its own full beat, with the shape borrowed from the sound after it	16, 19

Notice the pattern: nearly every trap is a timing problem, not a sound problem. Fix the beat and the sound often fixes itself.

From Saying Them to Reading Them

Tongue twisters are a nice bridge into reading, because most of them are famous enough that you will meet them in kana and in kanji.

Take number 5. In kana it is すもももももももものうち, a wall of も that only makes sense once you can read each beat. In kanji it is 李も桃も桃のうち, and suddenly the plum and the peach are visible.

That is the payoff for reading practice: the kanji tells you the meaning, the kana tells you the sound. Recognizing kana and kanji quickly, and writing them by hand, are two different skills, and both help here. Neither one is better than the other; they support each other.

You can watch how kana are built stroke by stroke in the animated stroke order demo, then say each one out loud as you write it. And when you meet a twister written in kanji, paste it into the free furigana converter to see the reading above every character.

How Kana Conbini Can Help

If you want the reading side of this to feel easier, our app is one friendly option among many.

• Native Japanese voice on every word, so you can hear the mora timing that tongue twisters demand, one word at a time.
• Conbini Run, a convenience store game where you read hiragana, katakana, and kanji to serve customers, which makes reading these phrases faster over time.
• Write Kanji (書き取り), a handwriting mode where you trace all 46 hiragana, 46 katakana, and 2,126 kanji in correct stroke order, with guides that fade as you improve.
• 10,000+ real vocabulary words across N5 to N1, with smart reviews that bring each word back right before you would forget it.
• Free to start, no subscription, on iPhone and Android. In the free tier, daily handwriting uses an energy meter that refills over time.

More free guides and printables live on the learn hub, and you can see everything the app does on the home page.