“Seize Chaises” Tongue Twister
Seize chaises sèches dans seize chambres sèches.
Translation: Sixteen dry chairs in sixteen dry rooms.
Why Is It Hard?
The difficulty is the contrast between the S sound in seize (sixteen) and sèches (dry), and the CH sound in chaises (chairs) and chambres (rooms). French speakers must rapidly alternate between S and CH — sounds that require opposite tongue positions — while also navigating the silent E in sèches. At speed, the S and CH sounds blur into each other, producing garbled nonsense.
History
Seize Chaises is a classroom favourite across France and Francophone countries, regularly used to teach the distinction between the S and CH phonemes to both native speakers and learners of French. The phrase’s setting — rooms and chairs — is deliberately mundane and visualisable, which helps with memory and recall. It is one of several French tongue twisters built around the number sixteen, a word that itself contains two of the most commonly confused French sounds.
Tips for Saying It
- Alternate S and CH consciously: say seize (S sound), chaises (CH sound), sèches (S sound) in isolation first.
- Remember that the E in sèches is not silent despite the grave accent — it sounds like ‘seh’.
- Pair it with other S/CH virelangues to build muscle memory for rapidly switching between these sounds.
More French Tongue Twisters
Discover more tongue twisters from around the world:
- French Tongue Twisters — the complete virelangues collection
- Douze Douches — another compact French challenge
- Hard Tongue Twisters — the most challenging twisters of all