Alliteration and Tongue Twisters

What is alliteration?

Alliteration is when words close together start with the same sound. It makes phrases bouncy and fun to say.

Listen to this:

Silly snakes slither slowly. 🐍

Every word starts with the /s/ sound. That is alliteration!

Same sound, not same letter

Alliteration is about the sound, not just the letter. "Phone" and "fish" both make the /f/ sound, so they alliterate even though they are spelt differently. Say them out loud and listen.

Why it is fun

Writers and poets use alliteration to make their words pop. It helps readers remember a phrase. Many tongue twisters and brand names use it because it sticks in your head!

• Big brown bears 🐻
• Wild windy weather 🌬️
• Crunchy carrots 🥕

Tongue twisters

A tongue twister is a phrase packed with similar sounds. It twists your tongue and is very hard to say fast! Try these three times, faster each time:

She sells seashells by the seashore. 🐚

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. 🌶️

Did your tongue get tangled? That is the fun of it!

Make your own

Pick a letter and build a silly sentence where lots of words start with that sound. Try the letter b:

Bouncy bunnies bake blue biscuits. 🐰

Now try your own name! "Marvellous Maya makes muffins." Can you do one for a friend?

A quick game

Match each animal with a word that starts with the same sound:

• Cat → Cuddly 🐱
• Dog → Dizzy 🐶
• Frog → Friendly 🐸

Super job!

Now you know that alliteration means matching first sounds. Practise a tongue twister and amaze your family at dinner!

Next, try Onomatopoeia: Sound Words and Rhyming Words.