 This photograph is likely to make any French speaker able to read Greek laugh to tears: the big blue letters read "PTI MPER", which is pronounced "PTI BER". This is a phonetic transcription of the French "petit beurre" (often pronounced "p'tit beurre", literally "small butter"). A bilingual pun is a pun in which a word in one language is similar to a word in another language. Typically, use of bilingual puns results in in-jokes, since there is often a very small overlap between speakers of the two languages. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
It has been suggested that dajare be merged into this article or section. ...
An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ...
Examples
Danish - "I would like a meatroom with a towel."
(Meat sounds like meet, thus "meatroom" (for a person speaking poor English, that is) in this context a "conference room". Towel sounds like the Danish word for "blackboard". Taken from the movie Gamle mænd i nye biler)
Dutch The Dutch prime minister is visiting the American president. At some point after dinner the president asks: "Do you have any hobbies?" The prime minister thinks for a moment and says, "Yeah, I fuck horses". "Pardon?" "Yes, paarden."
(Breeding in Dutch is fokken, which sounds like fucking; horses in Dutch is paarden, which sounds like pardon.)
Finnish - Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden were angling. Suddenly a fish caught Bruce's hook. When Bruce was pulling the fish into the boat he said: It is so heavy. It must be a shark. When the fish was in the boat Steve said: Oh, it is just an ordinary pike. Disappointed, Bruce answered: Ei siis hai.
(Ei siis hai sounds similar to Aces High but it means thus, no shark.) This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Stephen Percy Harris or Arry to his fans (born March 12, 1956 in Leytonstone, London, England) is the bassist and primary composer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. ...
For other uses, see iron maiden. ...
Aces High is a song written by Steve Harris for the 1984 Iron Maiden album Powerslave. ...
- When Bruce and Steve had returned from fishing, their neighbour noticed their boat and claimed that Bruce and Steve had taken his oar. Bruce and Steve answered: Airo on meidän.
(Airo on meidän sounds similar to Iron Maiden but it means Oar is ours.) - Mitä on englanniksi 'Yhdeksänkymmentä hiirtä myös?' - 'Ninety mice too!'
(What is 'Ninety mice too' in English? - 'Ninety mice too!' . Ninety mice too sounds similar to Nainti maistuu, which means roughly I enjoy fucking.)
A famous Finnish-English pun was born when Ahti Karjalainen allegedly misunderstood the English word dangerous as the name of an imaginary animal, tankero. Ahti Kalle Samuli Karjalainen (born 10 February 1923 in Hirvensalmi, died 7 September 1990 in Helsinki) was a Finnish politician. ...
The tankero was originally a fictional animal that was quite popular in Finnish media in the 1970s. ...
Viking Line has advertised christmas cruises with the slogan Meri Christmas. In Finnish, meri means sea, it is pronounced similarly to the English word merry. Viking Line MS Gabriella Viking Line is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of large combined cruiseferry ships between Finland, the Ã…land Islands, Sweden and Estonia. ...
French - A young Canadian lad buys three cats and names them Un, Deux and Trois before heading back home across the river. His boat capsizes; he arrives home half-frozen but still alive, sadly crying «Maman! Maman! Un, Deux, Trois cats sank!»
(The punchline sounds like the first five numbers in French, un deux trois quatre cinq.) This article is about domestic felines. ...
Look up home in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
River Gambia flowing through Niokolokoba National Park A river is a large natural waterway. ...
A boat is a craft or vessel designed to float on, and provide transport over, water. ...
- Q - Why do French people only have one egg for breakfast?
- A - Because one egg's 'un oeuf'. (one egg's enough)
Or this, from the motion picture Clue: the Movie: Clue is a 1985 Hollywood comedy film based on the board game Clue (also known as Cluedo). ...
- Mrs. Peacock: Is there a "little girl's room" in the hall?
- Yvette: Oui, oui, madame.
- Mrs. Peacock: No, I just need to powder my nose.
(Yvette's "Oui, oui," sounds like "wee-wee," an English-language euphemism for urinating.)
German - Q: According to Sigmund Freud, what comes between fear and sex?
- A: Fünf.
(German numbers - vier, fünf, sechs = four, five, six.) Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; IPA pronunciation: []) was an Austrian neurologist and the co-founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ...
- Q: Did Herr Beethoven write ten symphonies?
- A: Nein. - Means "No," but sounds like "nine" (9)
- Before the Battle of Normandy, two German spies have infiltrated the Allied Headquarters. Before they can retire and radio to Berlin, they have to attend the officers's cocktail. One of the two spies goes to the barman and asks, in perfect English :
- - "Two whiskies, please."
- - "Dry?"
- - "Nein, zwei!"
(In German, drei (three) is pronounced quite like dry.) Whisky, or whiskey, refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from grains and aged in oak casks. ...
In addition, the German word for team (Mannschaft) opens itself up for various bits of humor centered around its sounding like the English words man shaft, implying the penis, especially when combined with other sports words (such as Fussballmannschaft). As well, one of the constructions for fahren, "to drive", is fahrt (fart), which also opens up more opportunities for jokes. A team comprises any group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. ...
The penis (plural penises, penes) is an external male sexual organ. ...
Fußball has two meanings: The German name for Football (soccer) Table Football Categories: | ...
A Wayne and Shuster routine depicts a young Mozart appearing before an Emperor who offers him items from a plate of food and asks how many he would like: Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and highly influential composer of Classical music. ...
An emperor is a (male) monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. ...
A small indication of big trouble ahead: The tip of the scheissberg. (German Scheisse means shit and Berg means mountain) A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Species Sus barbatus Sus bucculentus Sus cebifrons Sus celebensis Sus domesticus(Sus scrofa domesticus) Sus heureni Sus philippensis Sus salvanius Sus scrofa Sus timoriensis Sus verrucosus Pigs, also called hogs, swine, boars (male) or sows (female), are ungulates native to Eurasia collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae...
Hindi - What did the lonely banana say?
- A: I’m a kela.
A kela is Hindi for banana, while akela is Hindi for alone.) - Q: What did the green peas say?
- A: Nothing. They just mutter- ed
Mutter (often spelled on restaurant menus as matar) is Hindi for peas.
Irish - Bhí beirt den IRA ag siúl síos Bóthar na bhFál i mBéal Feirste. Chonaic siad fear eile chucu. Dúirt an chéad fhear
- "An gceapann tu go bhfuil an fear sin ina bhall den UVF?",
- agus dúirt an dara fear
- "Ní cheapaim."
A direct translation is - Two IRA members are walking down the Falls Road in Belfast. They see another man walking against them. The first of the men says
- "Do you think he's a member of the UVF?",
- to which the other replies,
- "I don't think so."
"Ní cheapaim" is the Irish for "I don't think so", but also sounds like "Knee-cap him". Knee capping is a punishment notoriously used by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. A Republican mural in Belfast depicting the hunger strikes of 1981. ...
The Falls Road (Bóthar na bhFál in Irish, meaning road of the hedgerows) is the main road through West Belfast in Northern Ireland; from Divis Street and Castle Place in Belfast City Centre to Andersonstown in the suburbs. ...
WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary group. ...
Knee-capping is a form of malicious wounding used to punish enemies, or as a drastic form of torture. ...
A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ...
Motto: (Latin for Who would separate us?)[1] Anthem: UK: God Save the Queen Regional: (de facto) Londonderry Air Capital Belfast Largest city Belfast Official language(s) English (de facto), Irish, Ulster Scots 3, NI Sign Language Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister of the UK Tony...
Japanese As Japanese has both a large number of English loanwords and a lot of contact with American culture, English-Japanese bilingual puns are plentiful. - A man buys a Nissan, and wants to name it, but can't decide if he should give it a male or female name. He asks his Japanese friend, who says, "Female." The man asks why, so the friend responds, "Each Nissan, she go."
(The punchline sounds like the first five numbers in Japanese, ichi ni san shi go.) Nissan Motor Co. ...
The theme song to the anime series His and Her Circumstances contains the following pun; Anime ) (IPA pronunciation: in Japanese, but typically or in English) is an abbreviation of the word animation. Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating in Japan. ...
Kare Kano manga, volume 1 (English version) His and Her Circumstances, or Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō (彼氏彼女の事情), or Kare Kano (カレカノ), is a manga by Masami Tsuda and a 26 episode TV anime series, directed by Hideaki Anno of Gainax. ...
- -You may dream, masshiro na...
- (You may dream, pure white...)
"You may" sounds like yume, the Japanese word for "dream". A dream is the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep. ...
A popular joke is to say to someone: "Ayu wa sakana", and if they look puzzled, then say, "Well, yes or no?" The phrase sounds like the Japanese sentence which states "An Ayu is a fish", as well as the English question "Are you a sakana". Depending on which they hear, and their answer, you can inform them that they are wrong- an Ayu definitely IS a fish, -or- YOU are definitely not a fish.
Puns on the word "Ai", which means "love" in Japanese, and is pronounced like the words I and eye, are quite common. The title of the manga/anime series Video Girl Ai is a bilingual pun. Ai means "love" in Japanese, which fits Ai's character. But in English, "AI" means artificial intelligence, which also befits Ai's character. 2nd English edition of InuYasha Vol. ...
Anime ) (IPA pronunciation: in Japanese, but typically or in English) is an abbreviation of the word animation. Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation originating in Japan. ...
Video Girl Ai ) is a manga series created by Masakazu Katsura and published by Shueishas Weekly Shonen Jump. ...
Hondas humanoid robot AI redirects here. ...
People use Japanese names for puns too, such as Fukumi ("fuck me") and Saiko ("psycho").
Another Japanese pun is 「すばら C」(subara C). This is a joke on the Japanese adjective 「すばらしい」(subarashii), which means "wonderful."
Korean - Q: What did the Korean bus driver say to the egg?
- A: 계란!
계란 (gyeran) which means "egg" in Korean sounds like "Get on".
Other jokes use cognates as puns, like: Q: What is a vampire's favorite drink? A: Coffee. (Keo-pi, means "nosebleed")
Q: What's another way to say "brown rice" besides "현미쌀?" (hyun-mi ssal, brown rice) A: Bobby Brown. (밥이 brown (bab-i brown), or "The rice is brown.")
Q: What did the fish say when the shark bit into its side and bone? A: "Oh, my 가시!" ("Oh, my ga-shi," or "Oh, my bone;" is meant to be a cognate for "Oh, my gosh")
Q: which room smells bad? A: Room nine (In Korean, Room nine is "방구Bang-gu," which means "fart")
Q: There were two tissue boxes, one smaller than the other. What did the smaller box say to the bigger one? A: "Oh, you are so 휴지(hyuji)!" ("휴지(hyuji)," which means "tissue" in Korean, sounds similar to the English word "huge")
Maori - "Et tu, Brutus?"
- "Why are you speaking Maori?"
(From the film Sione's Wedding. "E tu" is Maori for "Stand up".) Siones Wedding is a 2006 comedic film written by James Griffin and Oscar Knightley, and produced by South Pacific Pictures. ...
Norwegian - "The plane took off with a great fart and disappeared in the horizon as a prick"
(Fart is how one would spell "speed". Prick is "dot".) - "What a mess you have made!"
(Mess is almost the word for "conference".) - "Make love, not vår"
(vår rhymes with "war", and is the Norwegian word for the season of spring. This pun was used by IKEA in advertisements.) IKEA is a privately held international low cost home furnishings retailer. ...
- "Only one family"
(Sounds like the Norwegian phrase "Aunli vant femmila", which means that a skier called Aunli won a particular ski race of fifty kilometres, or 31,07 miles.)
Portuguese - Which is better, snow or milk?
- Better leite than neve.
(Leite is milk, and neve is snow. The phrase with the Portuguese words substituted into it sounds like "better late than never".)
Russian - A man walks into a Russian airport and requests, in English:
- "I want two tickets to Dublin."
- The ticket clerk asks:
- "Куда, блин?"
- To which the customer replies:
- "To Dublin!"
("Куда, блин" means roughly "Where, dammit?" (literally "Where, pancake?"), and "to Dublin" sounds like "Туда, блин", or, roughly, "There, dammit!")
Spanish - Un Zorro y un Jaguar se encuentran en New York. El Jaguar dice "How are you?". El zorro contesta "No, I'm sorry".
Translation: A jaguar and a fox meet in new york. The Jaguar asks "How are you?" which sounds like "Jaguar you?" in Spanish. The fox answers "No, I'm sorry" (sorry sound like zorro, the Spanish word for fox). This joke can be understood by many Spanish speakers because it uses two English phrases commonly used in an introductory English course. - A Spaniard who knows very little English walks into a bus station and requests:
- "One ticket to Kentucky."
- The clerk asks:
- "On the bus?"
- And the Spaniard replies:
- "Onde voy a ir, a Kentucky."
("On the bus" sounds like vulgar Spanish "Onde vas", contraction of "Adónde vas" as pronounced by most Spaniards, which means "where are you going". The guy replies "Onde voy a ir, a Kentucky" - roughly, "where I am going, to Kentucky") - A Spanish speaker who knows no English walks into a pharmacy and requests, in Spanish:
- "¿Hay ampolletas?"
- To which the clerk replies:
- "Hello, mr. Polletas."
("¿Hay ampolletas?", Spanish for "are there ampoules?", sounds like English "I am Polletas") Pharmaceutical ampoules An ampoule is a small glass vial which is hermetically sealed by melting the thin top usually with a blowtorch flame after filling, and is most commonly used as a container for hypodermic injection solutions (eg. ...
- A Spanish speaker who knows no English goes into a clothes store in an English-speaking country and wants a garment but doesn't know how to ask for it. After the manager shows the Spanish speaker every article of clothing in the store, she shows the Spanish speaker a pair of socks, and the Spanish speaker says:
- "¡Eso sí que es!" ("That's what it is!") The manager responds:
- "If you could spell it all along, why didn't you say so?"
("¡Eso sí que es!" sounds like the English letter sequence "S-O-C-K-S.")
The road El Camino Real (literally, "the royal road") in California passes by Stanford University, which has a notable computer science department. Since "real" is a type of number in some programming languages, a programmer began calling it "El Camino Bignum", and the name has stuck somewhat among computer programmers in the area. El Camino Real in California is historically the road built in 1769 by Father JunÃpero Serra to connect the Catholic missions in Alta California between Sonoma in the north, and (what is now Presidio Park in) San Diego in the south, during the Spanish colonial era, and now a...
This article is about the U.S. state. ...
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County. ...
A bignum package in a computer or program allows internal representation of very large integers, rational numbers, decimal numbers, or floating-point numbers (limitted only by available memory), and provides a set of arithmetic operations on such numbers. ...
- Q: What do you call four mariachis standing in a pool of quicksand?
- A: Cuatro cinco ("cuatro" and "cinco" mean "four" and "five" respectively in Spanish, and "cinco" is pronounced like "sink-o")
An alternate version asks "what do you call four illegal immigrants (or something more offensive) drowning in the Rio Grande?" Illegal immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently, in violation of the law or without documents permitting an immigrant to settle in that country. ...
Wetback is a derogatory term for a Mexican or Central American who is in the United States illegally. ...
RÃo Bravo redirects here. ...
- Jose had just finished his English class, but to pass the teacher asked him one last question. Use the words "green," "pink," and "yellow" in the same sentence.
- Jose thought for a minute and then replied, "The phone go green, green, green, green, I pink it up, and I say yellow"
Swedish - "My name is Jönsson, with two pricks over the first 'o'".
(Prick is Swedish for dot.) - An English couple are travelling by train in Skåne (southern Sweden). At one stop, two local farm boys board the train and take their seats in the same compartment. One is tall, blond, and striking, while the other one is short and plain. The Englishwoman admires the tall youth for a moment, then remarks to her husband:
- "What a handsome face!"
- The short boy blushes and answers:
- "Näeij, frun, det var jag."
("What a handsome face" sounds like the Swedish phrase "Var det han som fes?", i.e. "Was it he who farted?"—especially if pronounced with the Scanian dialect of Swedish. The boy's answer means: "No, ma'am, it was I.") The English are an ethnic group originating in the lowlands of Great Britain and are descendent primarily from the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts with minor influences from the Scandanavians and other groups. ...
A typical North American steam train In rail transport, a train consists of rail vehicles that move along guides to transport freight or passengers from one place to another. ...
The Flag of Skåne (also known as Scania in English) is the southernmost historical province (landskap) and County (Län) of Sweden. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with flatulence. ...
A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...
Tagalog - Q: Why didn't the man walk across the puddle of water?
- A: Because it was too big. ("Tubig" is "water" in Tagalog.)
- Someone was drowning in a swimming pool, so he screamed for help. The lifeguard on-duty quickly grabbed a rope and threw it to him. Unfortunately, the rope didn't help because it wasn't too long. ("Tulong" is "help" in Tagalog.)
- At 1:00 PM, I took some ice cream out of the freezer, but then I forgot about it. That was one hour ago, and I just realized that it's 2 now. ("Tunaw" is "melted" in Tagalog.)
- Q: Do you know any languages that are spoken in India?
- A: Hindi ("Hindi" is Tagalog for "No". Hindi is also a language in India.)
- Q: Why can't you eat salt on Sunday?
- A: Because it would be a sin. ("Asin" is "salt" in Tagalog.)
Tagalog (pronunciation: ) is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ...
Kikongo A language spoken in the lower Congo- formally Zaire (Bas-Zaire) and also in North of Angola-
To encourage students practice their French, most Schools have a token called "Le Symbol". The token is given to anyone caught speaking in a language other than French on school grounds. A typical pun is to hear students taunting the token carrier as they run alongside him, screaming "Kiadi mono seyi fua!", which in Kikongo means "What a sad thing, I am dying!". This sounds like the French "Qui a dit mon non six fois", which means "Who has been repeating my name six times?" The token carrier then responds that the taunter must carry Le Symbol.
Q: Why? A: Because I heard you say something in Kikongo. Q: What did I say? A: The token carrier repeats: "Kiadi mono seyi fua!" Q: I didn't say that. I was only inquiring to know who was repeating my name six times! And even if that were the case, then you must keep the token because you have repeated the very thing you accuse me of saying.
Then all the others break into laughter and shout in Kikongo "Kiadi beni!", meaning "It is very sad." This sounds like the French phrase "Qui a dit Beni?", which means "Who said 'Beni'?"
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