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As a non-native English speaker, I'm always specially proud when I come up with a pun. I wonder how prevalent puns are in other languages, it seems they are ex

As a non-native English speaker, I'm always specially proud when I come up with a pun. I wonder how prevalent puns are in other languages, it seems they are extremely prevalent in English or at least in British English but hardly at all in Spanish. I've seen/heard some in German but not sure how prevalent.

yen223 7y ago
A lot of Chinese superstitions are based around puns. Like how it’s a bad idea to give a clock as a gift, because “sending a clock” sounds like “sending someone off to their funeral” in mandarin.
- mikeash 7y ago
  4 is a bad number because it sounds like “death.” Tall buildings tend to omit floors 4, 14, etc., the way tall buildings in the US often omit floor 13. Amusingly, Chinese building often omit 13 as well. So you might be on floor 15 and only really be on floor 12 because 4, 13, and 14 are all left out. Less dire numeric associations are 55 for crying (pronounced “wuwu”) and 88 for bye-bye (“baba”).
raister 7y ago
In Brazilian Portuguese there are several, so many that one gets tired... The 'pun' word itself, in BP means 'fart' (pum) which creates a lot of interesting jokes. For example, we have a tart called 'empanada' - an advertsing shout 'Para que serve uma barriga vazia, ein? Pá nada!' - 'what an empty belly is good for, huh? For nothing!'. (it's impossible to explain a pun...)
- Y_Y 7y ago
  > A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. Thank you for the information on Brazilian puns, however I cannot let someone call an empanada a "tart", a tart must be open, whereas an empanada must be covered.
  - tempguy9999 7y ago
    pendant
    - nvader 7y ago
      All pendants must be hung?
      - tempguy9999 7y ago
        You got it!
- eipipuz 7y ago
  I don't know Portuguese, but from what I can understand the pun translates perfectly to Spanish. Incidentally, pun also translates to fart. – ¿Para qué sirve una barriga vacía? – Em, ¡Pa' nada!"
9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
Puns (dajare) form a huge part of Japanese humor, much aided by the fact that the language has an enormous amount of homophones. https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-puns/ https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-puns/
elyobo 7y ago
I have very limited Thai, but one cross language pun that was always amusing is that the word commonly used for a bad smell sounds like "men" - เหม็น (Google translates it as "foul", but I've only heard it used specifically in relation to smells).
wazoox 7y ago
In French, puns are called calembours and are huge. All major writers left behind some puns. There are some famous songwriters specializing in puns. Alphonse Allais was probably the master of them all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime

yen223 7y ago

A lot of Chinese superstitions are based around puns. Like how it’s a bad idea to give a clock as a gift, because “sending a clock” sounds like “sending someone off to their funeral” in mandarin.

mikeash 7y ago
4 is a bad number because it sounds like “death.” Tall buildings tend to omit floors 4, 14, etc., the way tall buildings in the US often omit floor 13. Amusingly, Chinese building often omit 13 as well. So you might be on floor 15 and only really be on floor 12 because 4, 13, and 14 are all left out. Less dire numeric associations are 55 for crying (pronounced “wuwu”) and 88 for bye-bye (“baba”).

raister 7y ago

In Brazilian Portuguese there are several, so many that one gets tired... The 'pun' word itself, in BP means 'fart' (pum) which creates a lot of interesting jokes. For example, we have a tart called 'empanada' - an advertsing shout 'Para que serve uma barriga vazia, ein? Pá nada!' - 'what an empty belly is good for, huh? For nothing!'. (it's impossible to explain a pun...)

Y_Y 7y ago
> A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. Thank you for the information on Brazilian puns, however I cannot let someone call an empanada a "tart", a tart must be open, whereas an empanada must be covered.
- tempguy9999 7y ago
  pendant
  - nvader 7y ago
    All pendants must be hung?
    - tempguy9999 7y ago
      You got it!
eipipuz 7y ago
I don't know Portuguese, but from what I can understand the pun translates perfectly to Spanish. Incidentally, pun also translates to fart. – ¿Para qué sirve una barriga vacía? – Em, ¡Pa' nada!"

9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago

Puns (dajare) form a huge part of Japanese humor, much aided by the fact that the language has an enormous amount of homophones. https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-puns/ https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-puns/

elyobo 7y ago

I have very limited Thai, but one cross language pun that was always amusing is that the word commonly used for a bad smell sounds like "men" - เหม็น (Google translates it as "foul", but I've only heard it used specifically in relation to smells).

wazoox 7y ago

In French, puns are called calembours and are huge. All major writers left behind some puns. There are some famous songwriters specializing in puns. Alphonse Allais was probably the master of them all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holorime