Fourty-four stone lions (Mandarin Chinese)
One short tongue twister in Mandarin Chinese: si4 shi2 si4 ge shi2 shi1 zi (phonetically: sih shr sih guh shr shr zuh). It means forty-four stone lions!
Sent by: Oli
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This is one is not hard, and actually it is shu4 shang4 you3 si4 shi2 si4 ge se4 shi4 zi, di4 shang4 you3 si4 shi2 si4 tou2 shi2 shi1 zi, di4 shang de si4 shi2 si4 tou2 shi2 shi1 zi yao4 chi1 shu4 shang4 de si4 shi2 si4 ge se4 shi4 zi. It means "there are 44 bitter persimmons and there are 44 lions on the ground. Those lions on the ground want to eat the 44 bitter persimmons in the tree." Still want to learn Chinese?
Allan's beats the lot I think! I'm still struggling with '44 purple lions' - I think our (excellent) Chinese teacher uses it as a punishment at the end of a two hour class - just to get her own back for murdering her language!
Similar and easier one would be:
si4 shi4 si4, shi2 shi4 shi2, shi2 si4 shi4 shi2 si4, si4 shi2 shi4 si4 shi2
four is four, fourteen is fourteen, fourty is fourty, fourty four stone lions are dead.
means: 4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40
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