Things Are Getting Punny

Keep Smiling English is getting punny on Facebook. From now on I’ll be posting some popular puns for those of you who don’t know them. Well, first things first. In case you don’t know what a pun is, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as

a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

In Spanish, it’s called «juego de palabras», and I must say that there are great puns both in English and Spanish. In this case, we’ll focus only on English puns, obviously! As the Oxford Dic’s definition clearly reflects, puns can exploit the meaning or the pronunciation of words, so it goes without saying that puns are a great way to learn English and have fun at the same time. Let’s see now a few well-known puns…

1. I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
2. I’m glad I know sign language, it’s pretty handy.
3. There was once a cross-eyed teacher who couldn’t control his pupils.

I’ll now explain them, just in case you didn’t quite get them.

1. Number 1 plays with the meaning of the expression to put a book down. If you can’t put a book down, it means that the book is very interesting, difficult to stop reading.

2. Number 2 is playing with the word «handy» (whose root is «hand» and whose meaning is «useful»)  and the fact that sign language uses hands to communicate. So it’s basically saying that sign language uses hands and that it’s useful.

3. In this case, «pupils», «teachers» and «cross-eyed» are the words responsible for the pun. «Pupils» can mean «students» or «the dark circular openings in each eye». Therefore, we don’t know if the teacher couldn’t control his students or his own eyes!

Now, in many cases, puns can be even better as memes. Here’s an example: The benefits of puns include learning new words, learning new meanings of words you already knew, and learning about the pronunciation of certain words or expressions.

Don’t forget to click here to follow KSE on Facebook and carry on having pun! 😀

, , , , , , ,

Entradas relacionadas

3 Comentarios. Dejar nuevo

  • I really enjoyed this article! I did not know what a pun was but now thanks to you I know 🙂 it is very interesting! the next step is to try do do a pun myself… wait a minute….mm sorry I can’t… it is a little bit complicated… maybe I need to be more fluent in English to achieve that!

    Responder
    • Haha, don’t worry, Virginie! It’s very difficult to come up with a clever pun. Even native speakers struggle to make puns, let alone puns worth sharing with others! Thanks for the comment. I’ll be posting more puns regularly on my Facebook page, in case you’d like to follow me on Facebook too! We’ll be in touch!

      Responder
  • […] already wrote an introduction to puns in the post “Things Are Getting Punny“, in case you want to check it out before reading on. But for those of you who are already […]

    Responder

Deja una respuesta

Tu dirección de correo electrónico no será publicada.

Rellena este campo
Rellena este campo
Por favor, introduce una dirección de correo electrónico válida.
Tienes que aprobar los términos para continuar

Menú