One sound, two meanings
French has an unusual number of words that sound the same, because final letters are often silent: vert, verre, vers and ver are all pronounced [vɛʁ]. These homophones are the raw material of the calembour, the classic pun built on sound.
Normally you clear ambiguity away. In a pun you leave it there, because the second reading adds something: a punchline, a jab, an extra thought.
The classic
Mon père est maire, mon frère est masseur.
[[mɛʁ] like mère, [masœʁ] like ma sœur]
My father is a mayor, my brother is a masseur.
What you hear: my father is a mother, my brother is my sister.
Where the second reading comes from
The second reading sits in the word, in the sound, or in how you cut up the stream of speech. The third source is typically French: liaison and enchaînement blur word boundaries, so a sentence can sometimes be split into words in two ways.
Three sources of double meaning
| Source | What happens | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Polysémie | One word has two meanings. | courant (electric current / up to date), pétrin (kneading trough / fix) |
| Homophonie | Two words sound the same but are spelled differently. | maire / mère / mer, cent / sans / sang |
| Découpage | The stream of sound can be split into words at two points. | c'est ouvert / c'est tout vert |
Each source in a sentence
Quel est le comble pour un électricien ? Ne pas être au courant.
What's the ultimate irony for an electrician? Not being up to date.
être au courant means to be in the know, and le courant is also electric current.
Que fait un crocodile quand il rencontre une jolie femelle ? Il Lacoste.
What does a crocodile do when it meets a pretty female? It chats her up.
You hear il l'accoste (he approaches her), plus the crocodile in the Lacoste logo.
Le parc ? C'est ouvert.
[[sɛtuvɛʁ] like c'est tout vert]
The park? It's open.
With liaison, c'est ouvert sounds like c'est tout vert (it's all green), and both fit a park.
Building your own pun
A typically French joke format is the question Quel est le comble pour …?: what would be the ultimate irony for a given trade? The answer is a fixed expression that literally fits that trade. It is a good way to practise the technique.
The technique in four steps
- 1
Topic
Pick the topic: a job, an industry, the subject of your text. The pun has to come from the topic, or it feels stuck on.
- 2
Double word
Look in that word field for a word that also lives in a fixed expression: salade in the garden and in raconter des salades (to spin tall tales), pétrin in the bakery and in être dans le pétrin (to be in a fix).
- 3
Frame
Build a sentence in which both meanings work, and check each one separately.
- 4
Trim
Cut anything that delays the punchline. The shorter the sentence, the stronger the pun.
The same technique
Le comble pour un jardinier ? Raconter des salades.
The ultimate irony for a gardener? Telling tall tales.
raconter des salades means to fib, literally to tell salads.
Hausse du prix de la farine : les boulangers dans le pétrin.
Flour prices rise: bakers in a fix.
A headline: le pétrin is both the kneading trough and a tight spot.
Le fret ferroviaire enfin remis sur les rails.
Rail freight finally back on track.
remettre sur les rails means to get something going again, here also literally.
Where puns belong
Press and advertising
French headlines, slogans and shop names are especially fond of puns. Hair salons are famous for them.
Conversation
A pun in conversation shows a feel for the language and usually earns a groan or a smile. Both count as success.
Factual text
In contracts, minutes and instructions, ambiguity is a flaw. There should be exactly one reading.
L'Hair du temps
The spirit of the times
A typical salon name: English hair sounds like air in l'air du temps.
A pun depends on two meanings sharing the same sound in French. In English they usually don't, even though English loves puns just as much. When translating, you therefore save the function, not the word: you build a new pun from English material in the same spot, or the punchline goes.
