Full video

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hello lovely students and welcome back

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to English with Lucy I've got a really

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fun lesson for you today because we're

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going to delve or dive into the world of

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jokes this is a really important part of

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British culture it's how we connect and

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follow social cues we're going to talk

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about play on words puns all that good

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stuff now I know that jokes tend to be

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silly but trust me this is actually

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quite serious business because

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understanding jokes and Nuance is a

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really important aspect of the advanced

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levels of fluency familiarizing yourself

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with multiple meanings of words is

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important at any level so practicing

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with the flexibility of words and

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sentences is a great way to put your

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brain to work and increase your

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comprehension skills something that

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might help you even further is that I

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have created a free PDF for today's

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lesson it contains everything that we're

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going to cover today plus a quiz so you

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can test your understanding if you'd

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like to download that all you have to do

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is click on the link Link in the

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description box you enter your name and

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your email address you sign up to my

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mailing list and the PDF will arrive

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directly in your inbox and after that

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you'll automatically receive my free

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weekly lesson PDFs you'll also hear

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about my news updates and course offers

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it's a free service and you can

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unsubscribe at any time right let's get

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started with the lesson so I think the

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most common form of wordplay is the pun

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and there is so much pun related content

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circulating around the internet now

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they're often referred to as dad jokes

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and I personally love them a pun uses

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the multiple meanings of a term or

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similar sounding words for an intended

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humorous effect and puns often rely on

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homophones homographs or homonyms

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what are homophones homographs and

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homonyms I hear you ask from your tiny

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little screen homophones are words that

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have the same pronunciation but

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different meanings origins or spellings

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they can cause confusion in spoken

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language because they sound identical so

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context is extremely important here are

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some examples we have per a set of two

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and per a type of fruit

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we have flour the ingredient for baking

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cakes and flour a blooming plant

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break to separate into pieces and break

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a device for slowing a vehicle now

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homographs have the same spelling but

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different meanings and they may have

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different pronunciations for example bow

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to bend at the waist and bow a

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decorative knot

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tear to rip something and tear a drop of

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liquid from the eye we also have lead a

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type of metal and lead to guide or

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direct

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so as you can see they can cause

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confusion in writing because of their

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identical spelling and finally we have

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homonyms which are words that have the

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same spelling and pronunciation but

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different meanings homonyms can be

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considered a combination of homophones

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and homographs and thus cause confusion

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in both speaking and writing so much fun

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here are some examples we have bark the

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outer covering of a tree and bark

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the sound a dog makes Bank a financial

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institution and Bank the side of a river

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but a flying mammal and bat a piece of

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sports equipment okay now that we have

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all of that background info out of the

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way let's see how you do with some of

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these play on words if you don't

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understand them that's okay let's just

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see how you do okay firstly

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did you hear about the guy whose whole

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left side was cut off

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he's all right now

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do you get it do you get why it's funny

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okay jokes are never as funny when you

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have to explain them but that's why

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we're here right and that was a total

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dad joke this absolutely hilarious pun

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plays on the homophones all right and

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all right the joke is that the man who

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had his left side cut off would be in a

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terrible state but the punch line

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reveals that he is all right meaning

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he's doing well all right also means

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only the right side no left because he's

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had his left side removed he consists

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only of his right side so he is all

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right wow that is so unfunny now that

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I've explained it okay another one did

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you hear about the bicycle that couldn't

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stand on its own yeah it was too tired

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okay this is a certified dudject right

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here here we have the homophones too

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tired and too tired we need to

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understand that too tired means

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exhausted while too tired means having

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two wheels or two tires the rubber bit

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on the wheels the bike couldn't stand on

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its own because something with two tires

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will obviously fall over and something

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that is very very tired will also fall

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over so doubly funny hilarious editors

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please can you insert and laugh track

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thank you

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okay next love this one

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why a postman so unhappy all the time

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because they're given the sack every

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morning

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my husband's in the background and he

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actually laughed a little bit it was

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like a

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do you ever do that when you see a funny

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video on your phone and you don't laugh

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you just go

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now we can see how homonyms can also be

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used to make puns here we're playing

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with the double meaning of the phrase

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give the sack or give in the sack in

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this context to be given the sack means

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to be fired or dismissed from a job but

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the joke is that the postmen are given

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the sack every morning because they are

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provided with a bag or a big sack to

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carry the post in

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okay next one I love this one my mum

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tried to make a joke about the TV but it

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wasn't remotely funny

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okay I guess rather than being a dad

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joke this one's more of a mum joke but

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here we're using the double meaning of

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the word remote in this context adding

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Lee or l y to remote makes the adverb

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remotely which means not at all if

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something is not remotely funny it's not

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at all funny however remote is also a

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shortened informal way to say remote

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control this the device used to change

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channels on a TV that is pure comedic

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gold if you ask me not remotely funny

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she tried to make a joke about the TV

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but it wasn't remotely funny

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maybe I should stop teaching and go into

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comedy are you ready for our final and

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most difficult one our most difficult

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dad joke

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it's a big one there is a fine line

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between a numerator and a denominator

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it's okay if you didn't get that only a

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fraction will understand

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laughs

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okay this is actually a two for one two

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pun alert double pun alert we have two

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puns in this joke first in mathematics a

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fraction is a numerical quantity that

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represents a part of a whole expressed

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as a numerator over a denominator part

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of the joke is that there is a fine line

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which refers to the horizontal line that

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separates them in a fraction but a fine

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line also means a very small difference

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for example there's a very fine line

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between confidence and arrogance well

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here we're saying there's a fine line

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between the numerator and a denominator

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because they're part of a fraction the

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second part of the joke is that the word

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fraction means a small number outside of

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its mathematical meaning only a fraction

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will understand only a small number of

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people will understand okay I know these

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are pretty challenging but learning

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English should be enjoyable so don't

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forget to download today's PDFs we have

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lots more examples in there and we have

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a quiz to test your understanding the

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link is in the description box also you

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can connect with me on my social media

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I've got my Instagram and my Facebook

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I've also got my website where we've got

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lots more lessons and an interactive

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pronunciation tool where you can click

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on phonemes and hear me pronounce them

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and you can also check out all of my

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courses we have now released our B1

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program our B2 program and our C1

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program they're all available for

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enrollment now they are amazing if I do

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say so myself I'm incredibly proud of

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them and Incredibly excited for you to

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take them and experience them I will see

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you soon in another lesson

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foreign

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