Try these out for 20 minutes per day. They
will help.
Sentences Contrasting [æ], [ə], [α], [o], and
[ou]
Sentences featuring [m], [n], and [ŋ]
Sentences featuring [m], [w], [j], [r], and [l]
Sentences featuring all diphthongs
The fifty states: Try to name as many of the
fifty states as you can in one breath.
We have grouped them by the number of syllables to facilitate rhythmic
reading.
Maine Iowa Wisconsin Pennsylvania
Kentucky Wyoming West Virginia
Georgia Maryland
Kansas Michigan Alabama Louisiana
New York Missouri Arizona North Carolina
Texas Montana California South Carolina
Utah Nebraska Colorado
Vermont Nevada Connecticut
New
Hampshire Indiana
Alaska New
Jersey Massachusetts
Arkansas Ohio Minnesota
Delaware Oregon Mississippi
Florida Rhode
Island New Mexico
Hawaii Tennessee North Dakota
Idaho Virginia South Dakota
Illinois Washington Oklahoma
1. The boy put back the pack, but leapt past
the bike.
2. The lump in his blue lapel, a bruise,
brought a yelp from Bud.
3. Parliament passed a bill approving the
purchase of surplus barely from Nebraska’s bumper crop.
4. Is it bravado,
aplomb, or pluck, or is Pam just plain brash?
5. Place in Pat’s laba
tube, precious herbs, barbells, plenty of paper and ballpoint pens , and a lamb-pelt lab robe.
6. Blond people in public blimps shouldn’t
throw pebbles.
7. Thumps and gasps about the tomb made proud
Bob blubber for Pop.
8. People exploit the deep blue ebb for bass,
carp, bluefish, and blubber.
9. Pete bunted, passed, pitched and
punted. His double beat the Cubs; his
triple play helped trip Pittsburgh.
10. Please prepare a papal brunch; boiled
parsley, prime rib of pork, baked beets with bread crumbs, and pasta parmigiana.
11. Rob abruptly dropped the props and rubbed
the lump in the magic lamp.
1. Dot and Todd did the Te
Deum as a duet.
2. It is your duty to study the dusty tunes
3. The stud kicked mud on Matt’s sand dollar,
then strode toward the tundra.
4. The idea of daguerreotype did wonders for
photo development.
5. The undergraduate students attended North
Texas State University in Denton.
6. The desperate agent defused the time bomb
before it ticked to its detonation deadline.
7. The dead-letter office takes hundreds of
undelivered bundles to the dump each day.
8. Truman Capote told of two desperadoes in
his story called In Cold Blood.
9. Better to put little buttons into big
buttonholes than to try to force bulbous buttons into bitsy slits.
10. The rudder on the boat caught in the
reeds below the water and split down the middle.
11. The Best Western Motel rented suites with
double doors to traveling tourists.
12. The bride wore white as she walked beside
her dad down the petal-covered aisle.
13. Doctors treat contagious diseases while dentists drill teeth to remove decay.
14. The telephone and telegraph brought
together isolated cities, states, countries—and continents.
15. Dylan Thomas wrote poetry, Tennessee
William drafted dramas, and Danny Thomas acted in Make Room for Daddy.
1. Grab the crab by the back to avoid the
grip of its claw.
2. Gil haggled with the hack over the cost of
a cab to Gloucester.
3. Gullible Ken could not kill cranes with
big green beaks.
4. Frank won cups of guppies and glasses of
goldfish at the carnival for guessing Gilda’s weight in kilograms.
5. Agriculture involves the difficult task of
gradually cultivating good crops.
6. Eggnog is a creamy, sugary drink heavy in
caloric content.
7. Big quarterbacks from the Cowboys, Kansas
City, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh kicked pigskins across goal lines.
8. The musical Oklahoma! was
taken from the Green Grow the Lilacs, a folk drama of agrarian America.
9. Kennedy guaranteed that he could win the
election from Nixon in Connecticut, Arkansas, and the Great Lakes states.
10. Lady Godiva galloped quickly down the
cobblestone pavement as the goggle-eyed folks of Coventry gawked and gazed.
11. Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and
Gardens, Look, and Psychology Today are among my selections of magazines.
12. Graces Kelly gave up the glamour of
Hollywood to become queen of Monacan society.
13. The ox looks sick and weak as he kicks
flecks of straw at the back of his cage.
14. The Mexican cavalry galloped in expectation
of encountering the Texans and Crockett’s crew confined in the Alamo.
15. Querulous quidnunes
complained that the quantity of gossip was considerably below the quarterly
quota.
1/ People eat meat, peas, green beans, and
ice cream.
2. The bleak street was free from vehicles in the evening
heat.
3. Cecelia feels ill with a feverish spleen.
4. Being discreet means not revealing
secrets.
5. My niece is pleased with the antique
fleece.
6. Police walking the beat must keep their
feet clean.
7. She feels the peaceful breeze blowing
through the green trees.
8. She leaped easily over the heap of leaves
that the breeze had freed from the tree.
9. A theist is a believer, a Christian
devotee, who feels he will be redeemed in eternity.
10. Even Pete, it seems, got cold feet. The wedding vows he would not repeat.
11. The treatise deals with the theory that
disease is caused by extreme heat.
12. James Dean was featured in the screen
version of East of Eden.
13. The keen, clean stream was used by the
lean, mean man to water his green beans.
14. Meet me, leaning on a street post at the
pizza parlor, around three.
15. Eating cheeseburgers at convenient
beaneries increases calories and obesity.
1. Fervent believers in evil will never go to
heaven.
2. Seven-Up is an affordable, effervescent
beverage.
3. A salve of sulfur relieved the fever of
the inflicted convict.
4. The video featured Fannie Flagg and Phil
Silvers in Vanity Fair.
5. Chef Victor served veal fried in olive oil
and covered with fresh chives.
6. The first verse refers to the adverse
effects of the fruit of the vine.
7. A conference of five chiefs convened on
the river rafts in the fjord.
8. The safest advice is to save, give no
gifts, and avoid foolish investments.
9. Uvulas aquiver, the frightened nymphs
vanished into the verdant forest.
10. Alvin, the elfish knave, gave a lofty
gift to his fearful lover, Vera.
11. Even half a heifer is barely enough for
Val to have for breakfast.
12. Floats are available at the fountain in
seventy-five flavors, from vanilla to fresh alfalfa.
13. The Soviets’ fear of television was
proved valid when their first version of the fission formula was viewed in
Finland.
14. Fiddle evokes a frame of reference significantly
different from that of the more formal violin.
15. The Volkswagen service foreman, Vern,
phoned Freda Von Cleff to inform her that foreign
vermin had infiltrated her flivver’s valves.
1. A shimmering vision of Krishna arose from
the marshes.
2. A foolish shout of “fire” caused a crush
of confusion at the Bijou.
3. Sharon O’Shea wore a plush beige negligee.
4. That Russian said Brezhnev ate a fresh
dish of Quiche once in Central Asia.
5. Measure by measure the brash soloist
played a wishful, wistful adagio.
6. Persian fashion calls for a fusion of
fuchsia leisure suits and shiny gumshoes.
7. A sure sign of diminishing vision is
difficulty distinguishing Zsa Zsa
from Sha Na Na.
8. Sheets of shiny snow diminished Zhivago’s vision.
9. Flashy fashion models take pleasure in
showing their sharp-looking leisure suits.
10. Sure-handed nurses should establish a
triage to treat soldiers shot with shrapnel.
11. A sharp flash of sunshine gave full disclosure
to Shawn’s camouflaged position.
12. Six patient Hoosiers shared toothbrushes
on a pleasure cruise to Chicago.
13. Gigi washed the rouge off with
dishwashing lotion.
14. Marsha Pershing’s treasure chest should
contain a splashy collage.
15. When the sheriff fired three shots,
Portia stopped her shameless seizure of buried.
1. Dan and Don don’t get up before dawn.
2. I caught the cat asleep on the coat I’d
thrown on the cot.
3. We sowed the sod with seed and sawed arms
for a scarecrow.
4. The hockey tem –
the Philadelphia Hawks – looked hokey as they hacked at the puck.
5. I taught the girl to tat when she was a
small tot; she made a tote bag.
6. It means naught to a gnat if you do not
write him a note.
7. A rat took the letter I wrote you, carried
it under the wrought-iron sofa, and left it to rot.
8. Although the hotel room was hot, the
haughty lady would not take off her hat.
9. Do not shock Shaw by showing him the
shack.
10. Maw mopped the floor while Paw moped
because she lost his map.
11. The politician was appalled to find that
his pals did not vote for him at the polls.
12. The loan of some artificial laws made of
nylon helped the lawyers sell the land.
13. On the bottom of the boat Bob bought were
boxes of baseball bats.
14. Hal found a hole at the end of the empty,
hollow hall.
15. I woke up early, walked to the Japanese
restaurant, and had breakfast cooked in a wok.
1. Tomorrow is an immensely long time from
now.
2. Immerse nervous nerds in boiling cauldrons
of molten ink.
3. Pringle seems to be moving minute by
minute, moment by moment.
4. Mouth the sounds, feeling the formation of
the English language.
5. Do not mix ammonia amongst the manicotti.
6. Mending, minding, and knowing are not
proper nouns: New England is.
7. “What’s new?” mumbled the gnu as the gnome
from Nome meandered home.
8. A malingerer imagines ill feelings in an
attempt to shun unpleasant things.
9. Strip mining lingers as a major
environmental issue from Montana to Pennsylvania.
10. Manuel knew Nancy would enamel
everything, including the kitchen sink.
11. I never met a man named Naomi in North
America.
12. Pandas are mammals hailing from the
mountains near Nanking.
13. In anger the monkey mangled my ankle,
bringing me pain.
14. Uncommon Women is a compelling
contemporary drama.
15. Many moons ago, when hungry animals
roamed the swamplands, there came a stumbling, grinning primate with a penchant
for thinking: the human being.
1. The doctor, a young neurosurgeon, had her
medical insurance docked by deterring an unjust claim.
2. The National Council of Churches furnishes
judgments on major moral dilemmas.
3. The early bird gets the worm; the suburban
bird gets the perm.
4. In a verdant jungle I encountered
muskrats, mynah birds, and mallard ducks.
5. I had no idea hush puppies were considered
a luxury in northern Iowa.
6. Merlin suggested we attend a performance
of the contemporary drama The Runner Stumbles.
7. Gussie’s shirt
got stuck in the turnstile in front of the public facility, Municipal Stadium.
8. Unable to sustain pennant fever, the
struggling Cubs fell even further from first place.
9. Wyatt Earp is features in another western
television special.
10. Conjunctions are not generally considered
to be as humorous or funny as verbs.
11. Divers have discovered a buried treasure
where once a disaster occurred just off of Bermuda.
12. Mums, petunias, and some other flowers
must grow better in sunny Southern California than in Russia.
13. Serve pumpernickel buns fresh from the
oven for an early supper.
14. If Virginia appears jumpy, just remember
that she suffers from a nervous disorder.
15. Unencumbered by any other blockers, a
tough tackle tenderly crushed the hurt quarterback into the dirt.
1. The Prince of Wales’s ailing whale rides
the rail from Vail to Yale University.
2. The whetstone was wet, yet Rhett let me
borrow it.
3. What Eunice installed on her rotting yacht
was a fifty-watt lamp/
4. In broad daylight they drifted near the
Isle of Wight, in a dispute over white rights.
5. In lieu of being able to woo Koo, he
ruefully warbled “I love you.”
6. A wan, shipwrecked Ron awoke on a manicured
front lawn in Ireland.
7. The whiny steward served white wine and
watermelon rinds.
8. Lynn began to grin at the whinny of the
winning horse in the race at Baltimore.
9. When his friend lends enough yen, Roland
will rent a vessel to wend his way across the Atlantic.
10. She wanted to know what fool drew those
unique, loony runes.
11. Sheila whipped a yipping wimp, bloodying
his lip and ripping his clothes.
12. “Yare,” yelled the admiral from his
private lair, where he wore a rare uniform.
13. The young leader tried to rise above the
lies by asking herself the proper whos
and whys.
14. With a whack on the back of the black
yak, Jethro saddled the yoke to the rack.
1. Time and tide are known quantities that
are bound to change.
2. The round royalty tried all kinds of
dieting, to no avail.
3. Five players posed, poised and ready to
shout out loud.
4. Invite the cowboy to tape a toaster to his
eyelash hourly.
5. I know that Boyce’s renowned sinus problem
most likely originates in his brain.
6. No one is afflicted with goiter in the
famous play Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
7. O say, you can
sigh—Blake may have found those lousy soybean-flavored sundaes.
8. Oily Joe told a tasteless joke about fried
pies to his pouting spouse.
9. How did Goya paint such bold, bright
portraits?
10. Nine thousand houses employ maids who
mistakenly bake the daily paper while reading a souffle’.
11. The Boy Scouts loaned their adenoids to a
nice old lady.