# Fling me a non-English pun, please
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 15, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730 "2005-12-15T15:30:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/1 "2005-12-15T15:30:33Z")
Years ago I read a book of puns that had a section of non-English puns. The only two I remember are both French:
Why did the Frenchman have only one egg for breakfast? Because it as _un oeuf_
(pronounced “un-uff”, meaning “one egg”, i.e. one egg is “enough”)
Did you hear about the guy who drove cab for 40 years but had nothing to _chauffeur_ it?
(pronounced “sho-fer”, meaning “driver”)
There were some in Hebrew, Russian, likely other languages but I ferget’em. For that I should be pun-ished.
Beat me!
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/2 "2005-12-15T15:32:50Z")
I’m not sure if this qualifies as a joke thread, since it’s about puns. Nevertheless…
Moved from IMHO to MPSIMS.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/3 "2005-12-15T15:35:30Z")
I was taking a German class in college, and a few weeks into the course we each had to write a short essay about ourselves. I said it “sounds Ich-y.” Nobody got it.
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/4 "2005-12-15T15:41:35Z")
Funny, I’ve been watching my West Wing DVDs and the last episode I watched yesterday was the one where Margaret tells Leo the “un oeuf” joke. I found it a lot more amusing that I probably should have. Especially since I’ve seen the episode a million times.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/5 "2005-12-15T15:44:46Z")
Snail won the lottery … bought himself a fast car … painted an _S_ on the doors … Hey, looka that S-car go.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/6 "2005-12-15T15:45:59Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#):
>
> Years ago I read a book of puns that had a section of non-English puns. The only two I remember are both French:
>
> Why did the Frenchman have only one egg for breakfast? Because it as _un oeuf_
> (pronounced “un-uff”, meaning “one egg”, i.e. one egg is “enough”)
>
> Did you hear about the guy who drove cab for 40 years but had nothing to _chauffeur_ it?
> (pronounced “sho-fer”, meaning “driver”)
>
> There were some in Hebrew, Russian, likely other languages but I ferget’em. For that I should be pun-ished.
>
> Beat me!
Aren’t these bilingual or translingual puns that depend on the reader knowing meanings in two languages? They are only understandable if you know both languages.
Here is a non-English pun: _la korpekzercisto estas kolego_ (“the bodybuilder is a colleague”). The word _kolego_ can mean both ‘colleague’ and ‘big neck’ in Esperanto, so the phrase can also mean “the bodybuilder is a bigneck”.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/7 "2005-12-15T15:48:34Z")
There’s always “A l’eau, c’est l’heure!”
Or the French knock-knock joke:
\*Frappe, frappe!
–Qui est la?
Loste
–“Loste” qui?
\*Zat’s why I’m knocking!
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/8 "2005-12-15T15:50:04Z")
Ha I don’t know much French beyond “bonjour” but even I got that joke.
Loste qui… ::giggles::
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### Author:  [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/9 "2005-12-15T15:53:54Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Aren’t these bilingual or translingual puns that depend on the reader knowing meanings in two languages? They are only understandable if you know both languages.
I struggled with the thread title - I guess I didn’t struggle hard un oeuf. Yes, translingual puns are what I’m after. Please don’t throw Pierre off the bridge 😃
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### Author:  [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/10 "2005-12-15T15:59:20Z")
> [@Malacandra](#):
>
> There’s always “A l’eau, c’est l’heure!”
>
> Or the French knock-knock joke:
> \*Frappe, frappe!
> –Qui est la?
> Loste
> –“Loste” qui?
> \*Zat’s why I’m knocking!
Yes! Yes! More!
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### Author:  [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/11 "2005-12-15T16:03:17Z")
_La margarine? C’est bon, mais ce n’est pas la buerre!_
Margarine? It’s good but it’s not butter!
Which is based on “_c’est bon, mais ce n’est pas la guerre_” - it’s good, but it’s not the war.
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### Author:  [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/12 "2005-12-15T17:22:18Z")
“Waiter, when will I become a steak?”
“Never, I hope!”
(In german, _bekommen_ means “to get” or “to receive.”)
Also, “We are the champignons” was an ad campaign I saw while in Germany, I forget exactly what for, but the illustration was a bunch of mushrooms. (Champignon is german for mushroom.)
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/13 "2005-12-15T17:33:35Z")
There is an island called **Isola Bella** on Lake Maggiore in Italy (meaning beautiful island) It is named after **Isabella,** whose husband, Carlo III Borromeo (1538-84), built the palace and terraced gardens for her as a wedding present. I think that qualifies as a pun.
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### Author:  [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/14 "2005-12-15T17:39:27Z")
Jesus loved him his puns. Here’s a Latin one.
> [@Jesus](#):
>
> And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church
Peter’s Latin for “rock”.
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/15 "2005-12-15T17:41:25Z")
I had a past thread on this topic. It was called [“A pan of Pain. Examples of puns and word play, please.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=340411) Not so many replies, but what I got were good ones. 😃
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/16 "2005-12-15T17:48:13Z")
¿Que hace un pez con otro pez? Nada.
Meaning: what does a fish do with another fish? Swim/nothing.
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/17 "2005-12-15T18:36:44Z")
A clothing store salesman is trying to help a Spanish-speaking customer. Needless to say, the salesman doesn’t speak Spanish and the customer doesn’t speak English. The salesman resorts to holding up articles of clothing and asking “Is this what you want?”
After about an hour of this, the exasperated salesman finally holds up a pair of socks, asking “Is _this_ what you want?” The delighted customer exclaims, “Ah, eso si que es!”
The salesman grumbles, “Well, hell, if you’d have spelled it in the first place, you’d have saved us both a lot of trouble.”
Joke: “Eso si que es” translates roughly as “That’s it.”
Thanks to sophomore Spanish class.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/18 "2005-12-15T18:37:56Z")
I’m foggy on the details, but I recall from French calss in high school that some French leader (maybe even Napoleon) married an Austrian noble woman and the French joke at the time was calling her “une autre chien” (another dog) which sounds like Une Autrichienne (an Austrian).
The French name of Austria is Autriche.
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### Author:  [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/19 "2005-12-15T18:42:52Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#):
>
> I had a past thread on this topic. It was called [“A pan of Pain. Examples of puns and word play, please.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=340411) Not so many replies, but what I got were good ones. 😃
Thanks for that… I didn’t know about the baiser ambiguity. In grade school we, of course, got as much mileage as we could with the French word for “seal” - that being the notorious “phoque” which is pronounced closer to “fuck” than “folk”
French class:
Us: Teacher, teacher! What’s the word for seal again?
Teach: :rolleyes: C’est un phoque.
Us: Tee hee hee!
Math class:
Us: Phoque!
Teach: _What_ did you say?
Us: Oh, nothing bad - just seal in French (tee hee hee)
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### Author:  [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fling-me-a-non-english-pun-please/335730/20 "2005-12-15T18:45:00Z")
> [@Trunk](#):
>
> I’m foggy on the details, but I recall from French calss in high school that some French leader (maybe even Napoleon) married an Austrian noble woman and the French joke at the time was calling her “une autre chien” (another dog) which sounds like Une Autrichienne (an Austrian).
>
> The French name of Austria is Autriche.
Probably negative propaganda directed towards Marie Antoinette, born in Vienna.
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