Wednesday, September 2, 2009

English Puns

A pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. Such ambiguity may arise from the intentional misuse of homophonical, homographical, homonymic, polysemic, metonymic, or metaphorical language.

By definition, puns must be deliberate; an involuntary substitution of similar words is called a malapropism.

A pun is also  a little word game, playing with language. Most puns use a word that has two meanings, or use two words that sound almost the same. For example, the title of this exercise contains a pun. "PUNS Upon a Time" sounds like "ONCE upon a time."

Here are some puns. Use your knowledge of English, and your dictionary if necessary, to explain the pun. In each case, the pun is underlined.

Example: Why is an empty purse always the same? Because there is never any change in it. In this pun, the word "change" has two meanings: 1. coins and small bills, 2. alteration.

Other examples:

1. Do you know why it’s easy for a hunter to find a leopard? Because a leopard is always spotted.


2. When gambling became legal in the city, everyone agreed that the city was now a bettor place.


3. Did you hear about the Frenchman who jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing a parachute and landed in the river? The police didn’t arrest him because he was clearly in Seine.


4. A mechanic put this sign on the wall of his garage: "If you don’t get 25 miles per gallon, you auto have your hood checked."




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