Spoonerisms are slips of the tongue. They happen when we mix up the first letters of words in a statement and the result uses real words. For example, when I was aged about 8 (that's over 65 years ago), I told my mother, "I'm going to sheen my clues". I meant to say, "I'm going to clean my shoes".
Spoonerisms are named after Dr Spooner (1844–1930), He was a real person. He had a way of mixing up his words by swapping first letters. For instance:
� He referred to "the queer old Dean" instead of "the dear old Queen".
� He "boiled his icicle", instead of "oiled his bicycle".
� He told his students "you have hissed my mystery lectures" instead of "you have missed my history lectures".
People sometimes utter spoonerisms by accident. You can also make up spoonerisms for fun. You can do this by:
� Swapping the initial consonants of two words.
� Swapping the initial consonants of more than two words in a phrase.
� Swapping the prefix (first part) of two or more words.
When the letters are swapped, you can change them so that they produce the same sound, for example:
� oiled bicycle can become boiled icicle
� neat bat can become beat gnat.
Here are some more. Can you create some better examples? Have a go!
tea bag bee tag
brave cat cave brat
as keen as mustard as mean as custard
haul someone over the coals call someone over the holes
the flight of bees the bite of fleas
boil the spuds spoil the buds
brush my hat hush my brat
main road rain mode
junk mail monk jail
parrot cage carrot page
first name nursed fame
bold feat fold beet
bank loans lank bones
mum and dad dumb and mad
have a steaming drink have a dreaming stink
double bed bubble dead
like a ton of bricks like a bun of tricks
a bird in the hand a herd in the band
pouring with rain roaring with pain
a rabbit out of a hat a habit out of a rat
burn the midnight oil earn the midnight boil
never say die sever day nigh
bite the hand that feeds you fight the band that heeds you
as scary as a blue-tongued lizard as scary as a two-lunged blizzard
discover and remember a friend recover and dismember a friend