For example, do you understand the joke below?
“I took my pony to the vet yesterday : he has a sore throat”.
“Oh, is he coughing a lot?”
“No – but he is a little hoarse!”
If so, congratulations – you’ve got a great understanding of English homophones!
The joke here is that ‘hoarse’, an adjective for the raspy voice of someone with a sore throat, is a homophone for ‘horse’, the big four-legged animal. The two words are written differently, and mean very different things, but are pronounced exactly the same!
So, when we consider that a ‘pony’ in English is another word for a ‘small horse’, or a ‘little horse’, we have a pun – a joke that uses homophones to make you laugh!
Though puns aren’t to everyone’s taste – the legendary British comedian John Cleese once said that the only three rules of comedy were ‘no puns, no puns and no puns!’ – they will certainly get a reaction from people – either a laugh or a groan!
Of course, if I were to translate this joke directly into Turkish, Portuguese or French, it wouldn’t work – as the Turkish, Portuguese or French words for ‘hoarse’ and ‘horse’ aren’t homophones. So be careful – even the most uproarious pun in your own language might fall flat in English! You often can’t translate jokes and humour in different languages.