English Language Insights 86, 10 puns in English sentences along with comments.
Michael D. Powers, Ph.D., USCCI
US Certified Court Interpreter 1980 / Ph.D. Spanish Portuguese 1981 / 24 years university professor / Estimates: 12,000+ depositions, hearings, etc. / 850 trials / 3000 documents / Conference Interpreter 650 conferences
English Language Insights 86, 10 puns in English sentences along with comments.
Puns following with the following key words: “baker” and “make enough dough,” “anti-gravity” and “the impossibility of putting down a book,” “broom” and “sweeping the nation,” “play piano by ear” and “use my hands,” “fruit flies like a banana,” “A-flat minor,” “sign language” and “pretty hand,” “doctor” and “patients,” “boiled egg” and “hard to beat,” “chemistry joke” and “no reaction.”
1. I used to be a baker, but I couldn’t make enough dough.
Comment
The pun here relies on the double entendre of “make enough dough” and then combines it with the profession of being a baker.
The word “dough” can have two different meanings above; informally, “dough” refers to money, so make dough is synonymous to making money. However, for a baker, dough is a mixture of flour of meal and a liquid, such as milk or water, that becomes stiff enough to knead or roll.
2. I’m reading a book on anti-gravity; it’s impossible to put down.
Comment
Literally when you put something down, you set it down and whether a book or something else, it remains in that down position. However, one of the figurative meanings of “put down” is to end something. In the context of reading a book, when you cannot put it down, it means you cannot stop reading possibly because of the riveting plot. However, a book is something that one could literally put down as long as there is gravity. However, since the subject of the book is “anti-gravity,” it is physically impossible to set it down or put it down in this case, and thus “impossible.”
3. A new type of broom came out, it’s sweeping the nation.
Comment
When the utensil called a broom is used to sweep floors, this means to remove something from the surface of the floors, such as dirt, crumbs, dust, etc. However, when “sweeping” is used as an adjective, it often means extending over a wide area, such as the nation.
4. I used to play piano by ear, but now I use my hands.
Comment
In music, when you play a musical piece by ear, it means you do not read a score of music with the notes but rather replicate the sound based on what you heard. This common usage of “play by ear” is juxtaposed with a literal translation of using one’s ears to play the piano instead of using one’s hands.
5. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
Comment
This is a pun based on “fruit” as a subject versus “fruit flies” as a subject versus both a subject and a verb.
In the initial sentence, “time flies like an arrow” there is no ambiguity. Rather, it is given first so that the reader expects the patter SUBJ TV ADV and this automatically triggers one’s mind to comprehend “fruit flies like a banana” as if the fruit were literally flying and then imagining how bananas fly. However, with “fruit flies” as part of the subject, then “like” becomes the transitive verb, and since bananas are a fruit, and the small dipteran flies, such as drosophila, have larvae that feed on fruit or decaying vegetable matter, it all makes sense.
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6. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft, and I’ll show you A-flat minor.
Comment
In music, we have major cords and minor cords depending on the harmonics. These can be either major or minor, but in this case “minor” was chosen since minors are the ones that work in mine shafts.
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7. I’m glad I know sign language; it’s pretty handy.
Comment
The adjective “handy” is polysemous in this case since it means both “practical” and the use of one’s hands, with the latter being the key for sign language.
8. I wanted to be a doctor, but I didn’t have the patients.
Comment
Here “patients” is in double entendre with “patience.” In the former, patients are sick and go to a doctor for care. In the latter, patience is a virtue in which one waits. It’s also ironic because at least in the US, it takes forever for a doctor to see a patient and then it is quite fast.
9. A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat.
Comment
The idiom “hard to beat” means it is difficult to think of something better. However, you cannot literally beat a boiled egg because it no longer has a liquid egg yolk.
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10. I told a chemistry joke, but there was no reaction.
Comment
Of course, chemical reactions are when something physically happens, such as an explosion or sparks, or something. A reaction to a joke could be laughter, skepticism, etc. So, when it is stated that there was no reaction, we are not sure if it means a chemical reaction or a reaction by the public or the person hearing the joke.
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