节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-02-14
难易度:Medium
关键字:substitute, groan, tangled, unintentionally
(Music).
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us.
And Kaylah, it's always great seeing you here in the studio.
Well, thank you, Steve.
It's wonderful to be here with all of our friends talking about Funny English.
Yes, it is.
Friends, it's been said that half the world's books are written in English.
Sixty percent of the world's radio programs, 70 percent of international mail
and 80 percent of all computer text is in English.
With well more than a million words, English boasts the world's largest
vocabulary.
English is a vital language and a noble language.
But at the same time, it can be a crazy, weird and confusing language.
It certainly can.
So it definitely helps to have a good sense of humor when you study it because
you're going to come across some English sooner or later that's crazy.
Like today, when we encounter the pun.
Friends, please join us as we read today's lesson, Funny English, over on page
29.
(Music).
Funny English.
Puns are easy to create.
Just take two words that sound alike and substitute one for the other.
Like this: When is it time to go to the dentist?
Tooth hurty. (Two thirty. Get it?) Or this:
When the lady got married, she got a new name and a dress.
(Address, see?) You can also use a word with a double meaning:
Why can't a bicycle stand alone?
It's two tired.
(Get it? It has two tires, but it's also too tired!) Can you see why puns tend
to make people groan?
Or have you groan (grown) to like them?
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us.
My name is Ryan.
And I'm Kaylah.
And today we are still enjoying the funny parts of the English language.
Now yesterday we learned about a pun, which is a play on words.
Ryan, do you have any pun examples?
OK, I've got a joke for you guys.
Are you ready?
Why did the pony go to the doctor?
Now Kaylah, first let's explain this question.
What is a pony?
A pony is a horse.
OK. It's like a type of horse.
It's very little, OK?
So why did the pony go to the doctor?
I don't know.
Because he was a little horse.
Uh... ha. That's a pun because a pony is a little horse, a small horse,
but when you are "hoarse," that means your voice is gone, your throat is a
little bit sore.
So if he was a little hoarse, that means he was a little bit sick.
That's definitely a pun.
OK, it's a pun, but it's not a very good joke.
OK.
Now obviously puns are very easy to make.
That's right.
Just take two words that sound alike and substitute one for the other.
Now what do we do when we "substitute" something?
OK. That means you use one thing for the other.
So here we use the word "substitute" saying that you just take one word and
change it for a different word.
Now probably the most common time we think of substitute is a substitute
teacher.
Maybe your teacher is gone for the day.
She is... he or she is sick or they're on vacation, and then you need a teacher
to be in the classroom.
They come in and they're just there for maybe a day or two.
That is your substitute teacher.
Exactly, yeah. So in that case, you change one teacher for the other.
And in a pun, you change one word for a different word.
Like this: When is it time to go to the dentist?
Hmm... Um, well, we see here the answer is tooth hurty.
Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense.
Is that a real English phrase, tooth hurty?
Well, we see the word "tooth," so obviously you need to go to the dentist.
But the word "hurty" is actually not an English word at all.
We do see the part of a different word in there, though.
Yes, we see "hurt." So maybe if your tooth is hurting, you could go to the
doctor.
But the joke is substituting the word.
So if you said "tooth hurty," it sounds like two thirty.
Two thirty. Get it?
OK.
Or how about another example?
Here we see when the lady got married, she got a new name and a dress.
Oh, I get it.
Do you get it?
When a lady gets married, she usually moves from where she is living to move in
with her husband, so she would get a new address.
Now an address is where you live, so...
Do you get it?
So she moved and she also got a dress.
She got married in a dress.
So here, this word works... or these words work for both meanings.
That's right.
Now in English, a lot of times we do refer to having a name and address.
Now that's something we commonly ask for.
Maybe if you're at a post office, really, if you're signing up for anything, you
need to leave your name and address.
And that's what makes this joke funny.
Yeah. So if you got a new address, that means you moved somewhere.
And of course, she got married, so she moved with her new husband.
OK. There's also uh, use of double words that can have... or words that can have
a double meaning.
So for example, why can't a bicycle stand alone?
I don't know.
Well, here we see it says it's two tired.
Two tired... OK.
So that's a word with a double meaning.
We see "tired" is when you are sleepy.
It's when you would like to take a nap.
But "tire" is what is on a bike.
That is the wheels underneath it that turn to allow you to move.
So it is "two tired." It has two tires.
OK.
Oy.
Now Kaylah, these are not really very funny, but...
No!
they... they do make you giggle or laugh a very small amount.
Now obviously now friends, you can see why puns can make people groan.
That's right. Now friends, these double meaning words,
if you look in your magazine and look at the way they are spelled, it helps the
joke make a little bit more sense.
So you too might be able to groan at these jokes.
Yes. And if you're "groaning," it means you're complaining, making a noise that
sounds like you are complaining.
Yes, that's true.
You might be complaining about this joke.
Maybe it wasn't as funny as you thought it should be.
So sometimes they make you groan, or you know, you may even grow to like them.
Yeah. It says, "Or have you groan (grown) to like them?" Oh... that's another
pun.
That is a pun.
Now friends, we can see that puns are very... they can be very funny, they can
also be not so funny.
But a good thing about a pun is once you understand how the joke is made, it is
definitely funnier.
Exactly. So especially when you're learning a new language, when you understand
the joke and you get it, it really is a lot more funny.
That's right. Jokes really aren't funny if you have to explain them.
And a pun is a good example of a joke that loses its humor if you have to
explain it.
Right. So we're sorry for explaining these jokes to you today, but you can join
us after the break.
We'll keep going through some more ways that you can learn how to laugh in
English.
Right now let's watch the skit.
I'm learning to understand English humor.
Jokes make me laugh.
That's good.
Hey, how about this one:
How do you keep an elephant from charging?
How do you keep an elephant from charging...? I don't know.
You take away his credit card.
I get it! To charge means to attack.
That's right. But to charge also means to use your credit card.
So how do you keep an elephant from charging?
You take away his credit card.
Now that's funny.
Yeah, it's a funny pun.
Or maybe you could say a punny fun.
A punny fun?
Yeah. Sometimes you can create funny expressions by switching sounds around.
Oh. So funny pun becomes punny fun.
Yeah. Oh, here's another one.
You can say: Oh, oh, look at the flutterby.
No, you mean "butterfly." Butterfly.
I know, but I switch the letters around.
And I can call a butterfly a flutterby.
That's what it does - it flutters by.
Now I get it.
That's funny.
Yeah.
A flutterby.
I like ittoo.