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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-joke s, since there is often a very small overlap between speakers of the two languages. EXAMPLES French :A young Canadian lad buys three Cat s 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''.) :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 '''': :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.) :Q: Did Herr Beethoven write ten symphonies? :A: ''Nein''. - "No" but also "only 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''.) 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. 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: A small indication of big trouble ahead: The tip of the scheisseberg. Irish :Bhí beirt den IRA ag siúl síos an Falls Road i mBeal Feirste. Chonaic siad fear eile ag siul a dtreo. Duirt an chead fear :"An gceapann tu go bhfuil an fear sin as an UVF?", :agus duirt 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 . 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''.) The theme song to the Anime series His And Her Circumstances contains the following pun; :-You may dream, ''masshiro na''... : (''You may dream, pure white...'') "You may" sounds like ''yume'', the Japanese word for " Dream ". 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. People use Japanese names for puns too, such as Fukumi ("fuck me") and Saiko ("psycho"). 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: which room smells bad? A: Room nine (In Korean, Room nine is "Bang-gu," which means "fart") 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.) :"Only one family" (Sounds like the Norwegian phrase "Aunli vant femmila", which means that a skier called Aunli won a particular ski race of five 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 "Where, pancake", roughly, and "To Dublin" sounds like "''Туда, блин''", or, roughly, "There, pancake." It should be noted that блин is also a mild Expletive in Russian.) :A Russian tourist from room 22 calls the front desk and orders two cups of tea in bad English: :"Two tea to two two". (In Russian, "ту-ти-ту-ту-ту" (too-tee-to-too-too) sounds like a funny gibberish). 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 Ampoule s?", sounds like English "I am Polletas") :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. :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 prounounced something like "sink-o") An alternate version asks "what do you call four Illegal Immigrants (or Something More Offensive ) drowning in the Rio Grande ?" 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 jau." ("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.") Danish :"I would like a meatroom with a towel." (''Meat'' sounds like the Danish word for "meeting", thus the meaning of "meatroom" in this context is "conference room". ''Towel'' sounds like the Danish word for "blackboard". Taken from the movie ''Gamle mænd i nye biler'') Tagalog :Q: Why didn't the man walk across the puddle of water? :A: Because it was too big. ("Tubig" is "water" in Tagalog.) SEE ALSO |
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