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Quiz about Tonguetwisters
Quiz about Tonguetwisters

Tongue-twisters! Trivia Quiz


Tongue-twisters, i.e. scioglilingua (literally, tongue-melters) can be real fun. According to the sound of the words given, try to insert the missing term; you'll probably find yourself twisting your tongue!

A multiple-choice quiz by vale70. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
vale70
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
168,476
Updated
Jun 04 23
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
1365
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. This is a classic: "Sopra la panca la capra ___; sotto la panca la capra ___". Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. A good old one, well known to most Italian children : "Trentatre ___ entrarono a Trento, tutti e trentatre trotterellando". Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. A short one, that is anyway not easy: "Tigre contro ___". Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Here we go with a completely surreal one: "Se l'Arcivescovo di Costantinopoli si disarcivescovizzasse, vi ___ voi?". Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Having mentioned archbishops, let's move on to higher authorities: "Pisa pesa il pepe al ___; il Papa pesa il ___ a Pisa". Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Mythology, so to speak: "Apelle figlio di Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo; tutti i pesci vennero a ___ per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo". Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. From fish to the sea: "Sul mare ci sono nove navi nuove; una delle ___ non vuole navigare". Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. This one has a quite selfish undertone: "Porta aperta per chi porta; chi non porta parta pure, poco ___". Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. A more charitable one: "Dietro a quel ___ c'è un povero cane pazzo; date un pezzo di ___ a quel povero pazzo cane". Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Some madness: "Nel giardino di Messer Pazzino de' Pazzi c'era una pazza che lavava le pezze; venne Messer Pazzino de' Pazzi, prese la pazza e le pezze e gittolle nel ___". Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. This is a classic: "Sopra la panca la capra ___; sotto la panca la capra ___".

Answer: campa, crepa

"Sopra la panca la capra campa; sotto la panca la capra crepa", i.e. the goat lives on the bench and dies under it! Utterly meaningless, to be sure, as I've never heard of goats living on benches, but quite difficult to pronounce, especially if you have to repeat it several times!
2. A good old one, well known to most Italian children : "Trentatre ___ entrarono a Trento, tutti e trentatre trotterellando".

Answer: trentini

Trentini, i.e. people from Trento (beautiful town in the North of Italy), who apparently - in the number of 33 - entered Trento, all of them trotting along! I've never figured out the exact reason why they should trot, though...
3. A short one, that is anyway not easy: "Tigre contro ___".

Answer: tigre

Yes, "tigre contro tigre", that is "tiger against tiger". Believe me, it is really hard to say this! There is also a more difficult variant, "tre tigri contro tre tigri", namely "three tigers against three tigers".
4. Here we go with a completely surreal one: "Se l'Arcivescovo di Costantinopoli si disarcivescovizzasse, vi ___ voi?".

Answer: disarcivescovizzereste

It's difficult even in writing: disarcivescovizzereste!
The meaning, so to speak, is "If the Archbishop of Constantinople gave up his post, would you do the same?". To my knowledge, the verb "disarcivescovizzarsi" does not exist in Italian, occurring only in this terrible tongue-twister! Other versions exist besides this one, all of them even longer and harder...
5. Having mentioned archbishops, let's move on to higher authorities: "Pisa pesa il pepe al ___; il Papa pesa il ___ a Pisa".

Answer: Papa, pepe

Absurdly enough, Pisa weighs pepper for the Pope, who indeed weighs pepper in Pisa, i.e. "Pisa pesa il pepe al Papa; il Papa pesa il pepe a Pisa"! Again, this tongue-twister comes in different versions, sometimes substituting "Papa" (Pope) with "papà" (dad).
6. Mythology, so to speak: "Apelle figlio di Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo; tutti i pesci vennero a ___ per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo".

Answer: galla

"Apelle figlio di Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo; tutti i pesci vennero a galla per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo". In other words, Apelles, son of Apollo, made a ball of chicken skin, and fish came to the surface to see the chicken skin ball that he had made.

As to why on earth Apelles should have been wasting time in making balls out of chicken skin, well... that's a riddle!
7. From fish to the sea: "Sul mare ci sono nove navi nuove; una delle ___ non vuole navigare".

Answer: nove

"Sul mare ci sono nove navi nuove; una delle nove non vuole navigare", that is "Nine new ships are in the sea; one out of those nine does not want to sail".
8. This one has a quite selfish undertone: "Porta aperta per chi porta; chi non porta parta pure, poco ___".

Answer: importa

"Porta aperta per chi porta; chi non porta parta pure, poco importa". Which means that the door is open to those who bring something: those who don't... well, they can just leave, and it does not really matter! The whole tongue-twister is obviously based on the assonance of "porta" (door), "porta" (3rd person of the verb "portare", to bring) and "importa" (matters).
9. A more charitable one: "Dietro a quel ___ c'è un povero cane pazzo; date un pezzo di ___ a quel povero pazzo cane".

Answer: palazzo, pane

"Dietro a quel palazzo c'è un povero cane pazzo; date un pezzo di pane a quel povero pazzo cane". Kindly enough, the scioglilingua suggests you to give some bread to a poor mad dog standing behind a building. I'm quite sure the dog in question would rather have meat, but that ("carne" in Italian) wouldn't make a good tongue-twister!
10. Some madness: "Nel giardino di Messer Pazzino de' Pazzi c'era una pazza che lavava le pezze; venne Messer Pazzino de' Pazzi, prese la pazza e le pezze e gittolle nel ___".

Answer: pozzo

"Pozzo", indeed! This long story concerns a Master Pazzino de' Pazzi (we're apparently in the Middle Ages; the verb "gittolle" is in fact an archaic form for "le gettò", i.e. "threw them"). A crazy woman was washing cloth in his garden when he came, took the madwoman and the cloth and threw both into the well! Isn't that sheer madness?
Source: Author vale70

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