Bodily Oddities

Tongue rolling

Also called: Tongue curling · U-shaped tongue

Between 65% and 84% of people can curl the sides of the tongue up into a tube. For decades it was taught as a simple one-gene trait. It is not.

Mouth and throat Muscle Trick Voluntary Try it Learnable Debunked myth Genetic

How common

65–84% of people A Dutch study of 387 people found 83.7%.

Can you do this?

How it works

The tongue is a block of muscle with no bone inside it. Four pairs of muscles inside the tongue run lengthwise, crosswise, and up and down2. Rolling uses them to lift both side edges until the edges meet in the middle. The tongue becomes a tube. You can blow air through it.

In 1940 the geneticist Alfred Sturtevant suggested that rolling might be a dominant trait controlled by a single gene13. School textbooks copied the claim for decades. It is wrong. Studies of identical twins, who share all their genes, found that between 18% and 28% of twin pairs did not match1. In one study of Japanese schoolchildren, the share who could roll the tongue rose from 54% at ages 6 to 7 to 76% at age 123. In 1965 Sturtevant wrote that he was embarrassed to see it listed as a proven single-gene trait3. Genes probably play a part. They do not decide the result on their own3.

How common it is

The range comes from several separate surveys rather than one worldwide count13. A Dutch study of 387 adults gives the highest figure, 83.7%4. Because the skill can be learned in childhood, a survey’s result depends partly on the age of the people asked. Self-reported ability, tested by simply asking someone to try, is the usual method, and it is less rigorous than a formal genetic study.

Try it

  1. Open your mouth and push your tongue out a little.
  2. Try to lift both side edges of the tongue toward the roof of your mouth.
  3. If the edges meet, you have a tube. Blow through it to check.
  4. If nothing happens, practise in a mirror for a few minutes a day. Some people learn the movement with practice1.

Is it a problem?

No. Not being able to roll your tongue is not a sign of anything wrong, and being able to is not a special ability beyond a party trick. The old classroom claim that a single gene controls it is wrong13. There is nothing here to mention to a doctor, since tongue rolling ability has no known link to health.

History and culture

Tongue rolling is still used as a classroom example of inheritance. Some geneticists say it should not be used to teach basic genetics3.

Sources and further material

  1. Wikipedia Tongue rolling Prevalence figures, twin studies, and the history of the one-gene claim.
  2. Wikipedia Tongue Anatomy of the intrinsic tongue muscles.
  3. udel.edu Myths of Human Genetics: Tongue Rolling John H. McDonald, 2011 University of Delaware. Sturtevant 1940 and 1965, twin and family studies, Komai 1951.
  4. NCBI Five Specific Tongue Movements in a Healthy Population Kappert KDR, van Dijk S, Wellenstein D, et al., 2021 Dysphagia. 387 Dutch adults were asked to show five tongue movements. 83.7% could roll the tongue.

Updated , first published .

Missing something your body does? Tell me about it.

Mouth Trick

Cloverleaf tongue

Folding the tongue into three lobes, like a clover leaf. In one Dutch study, about 15% of adults could do it. It is usually called the hardest tongue shape.

About 15% (one Dutch sample)
Mouth Trick

Tongue folding

Folding the tip of the tongue backward over itself inside the mouth. Studies find that between 1.5% and 27.5% of people can do it.

1.5–27.5%
Mouth Trick

Tongue twisting

Turning the tongue on its side so the edges face up and down, or all the way over. Between 12% and 36% of people can twist it at least halfway.

12–36%
Mouth Trick

Pointed tongue

Making the tip of the tongue narrow and sharp, like a pencil point. About 55% of people in one Chinese survey can do it. It and tongue rolling are the two most common tongue tricks.

~55%