Vavroom's Bits & Bobs

Chez les Papous...

I love tongue twisters. There's a whole lot of 'em in French. One I
remember from my childhood was in the Gaston comics. It went something
like this:

Chez les Papous y'a des Papous papas, des Papous pas papas, des Papous
à poux et des Papous pas à poux. Y'a des Papous papa à poux, des
Papous pas papas à poux.... And so on and so forth.

Papous are people from Papua New Guinea.
Papas are fathers
Poux are lice.
So you get papous who are fathers and papous who are not, papous who
have lice and papous who have no lice, lice who are father, lice who
are not, etc.

So, can you figure this one out?

Chez les Papous y'a des Papous papas à poux papas, des Papous papas à
poux pas papas, des Papoux papas pas à poux papas, des Papoux papas
pas à poux pas papas, des Papoux pas papas à poux papas, des Papoux
pas papas à poux pas papas, des Papoux pas papas pas à poux papas, des
Papoux pas papas pas à poux pas papas, c'est tout.

Did you figure it out? Were you able to say it? How quick did you say
it? Confused now? LOL

The thing is, this particular tongue twister is particularly amusing,
but it also teaches kids about important linguistic concepts. It's
cool.

1 comment

Leave a comment...