Puns lean to make some people moan whilethoroughly delighting others . For anyone in the latter camp , little could be more comic than a pun or joke that delivers laughs beyond a received play on password . Bilingual prank and puns that somehow , through clowning and linguistic conjuration , wreak in two languages , or bear multiple language as a part of the joke , are the crown jewels of any ( jo)kingdom ( see what we did there ? ) . agree out these punderful joke that involve at least two unlike languages [ PDF ] .
1. Dutch Fish Don’t Say “Hi”
In the Netherlands , English - utterer should be certain not to cry “ Hi ! ” when swim in the ocean . Let this Dutch and English joke be a example to us all :
In Dutch , the wordhaai(which sounds like “ hi ” ) means " shark . "
2. This Story Stinks
Anyone who appreciates a dear joke would also surely consider Pig Latin a legitimate language , ripe ? In this joke about a teacher and student , you get English , Pig Latin , and French .
Of course , the Pig Latin portion of this story understand to “ This story stinks . ” The instructor ’s clever response not only mean “ outrage ” in French , but also sounds like “ on-key , ” as it would be said in Pig Latin .
3. Greek Pants
Speakers of Greek and English with a penchant for the Classics will enjoy this short joke about a Greek dramatist who ripped his pants .
4. French Eggs
This fun lilliputian pun about breakfast will make both French and English Speaker chuckle :
Un oeufmeans “ one egg ” in French , and it is pronounced very similarly to “ enough ” in English . This joke is even cute when you consider that French breakfasts do tend to be on the small side .
5. S-O-C-K-S
If you ’re bilingual in English and Spanish , this joke about a Spanish - verbaliser render to buycalcetines(socks ) will induce giggle ( and probably also some heart - rolling ) .
In Spanish , Eso , atomic number 14 que esbasically translate as “ That ’s what it is ! ” But it also sounds like a person spelling out s - type O - ascorbic acid - k - s.
6. The Impact of Gas
Anyone who address English and Swedish will get this trick right aside , but if you only speak English , keep in creative thinker that in Swedish , fartmeans “ speed , ” andsmäll(pronounced like " olfactory perception " ) transform to something like “ shock ” :
7. Purrr-gatory
This is perhaps the poof of allmultilingual paronomasia . Magically , it works in at least five unlike voice communication : English , Spanish , Portuguese , Italian , and French . The antic is about a computed tomography who dies ( sorry , kitty-cat ! ) , and goes to …
While in English and French , the joke play off of the purring sound computed tomography are get it on for , in the other lyric , it can play off of both thatandthat language ’s word for cat ( in Italic above ; though the French wordpurgatoireis funnier when slightly mispronounced withchat , the word for “ cat , ” inserted ) . When a punning can work in multiple language at multiple levels ? That really is the cat ’s meow .
A version of this tarradiddle run in 2016 ; it has been update for 2021 .
