EN 8.04W - Play on words: Writing puns
Section 1
A key element of humor in English is the pun, or a play on words, and many jokes themselves are based on puns. In this activity, you’ll
learn what a pun is, how it is used and how to create them yourself.
Look at the following joke. Why is it funny?
A boiled egg for breakfast is hard to beat.
The humor comes from the fact that there are two meanings here of hard to beat:
1. not able to be surpassed, i.e. nothing is better than a boiled egg
2. cannot be whisked/beaten, i.e. because the boiled egg is hard you can't whisk/beat it into scrambled eggs.
This is an example of a pun. Puns play with words in a variety of ways to produce humor.
1) Some puns rely on homophones -words which are spelled differently but sound the same. These are called homophonic puns. For
example:
Doctors need plenty of patience/patients.
2) Other puns rely on homographs - words which are spelled the same, but have different meanings and/or pronunciation. Because of this
they work best when written. These are called homographic puns. For example:
Did you hear about the optometrist who fell over and made a spectacle of himself?
Spectacle means glasses and to make a spectacle of yourself means to look ridiculous to others.
3) Other puns rely on using a string of two or more words that sound similar to a string of different words. These are called compound
puns. For example:
Where do you find giant snails? On the ends of giants’ fingers.
Giant snails = giant’s nails.
Question 1 Pairing
Match the words in the first column to the two possible meanings in column two.
A)
deliver
Related to hearing / good
B)
steps would be taken
Take someone’s house / remove an important organ of the
body
C)
interest
An inbuilt sense of logic / ordinary smells
D)
sound
Become bored / money earned on an account
E)
a-loan
Solitary / money borrowed from a bank
F)
common scents
To take further action / to steal more steps
Question 2 Fill-In-The-Gap
Complete the sentence with the correct word.
interest
common scents
further steps would be taken
I used to be a banker but I lost A
De-Liver
.
.'
When a ladder was stolen from a store the manager said that D
.
Women who wear $200 . 00 perfume obviously are known to have no E
A music store owner has to have F
sound
.
A bank manager without anyone around may find themself B
The liquor store advertised , 'We C
a-loan
.
business practices .
Question 3 Pairing
Match the beginning of the pun to the end of the pun.
A)
It's OK to watch an elephant bathe...
a lot of weight.
B)
Have you ever heard of an honest...
as they usually have their trunks on.
C)
A skunk fell in the river and...
cheetah?
D)
An elephant's opinion carries...
stank to the bottom.
E)
Two silk worms had a race.
They ended up in a tie.
Section 2
Let's Write
Look at these words which have two meanings and try to write a pun for each of them.
1. content - happy or satisfied/all that is contained inside something
2. minute - 60 seconds or 1/60th of an hour/extremely small
3. object - a thing you can see or touch/a goal/a noun that receives the action of a verb/to be opposed to
4. proceeds - advances or continues on/the money or profit gained from some sale or venture
5. produce - to create or make/fresh fruits and vegetables
6. project - a plan or proposal/to throw or hurl forward/to cause a shadow or image to fall upon a surface