Puns are jokes that play with the different meanings and sounds of words.

Puns are also called “groaners,” because instead of making you laugh they make you groan at how terrible the joke is. Some jokes are so bad that they’re good! 

Here’s an example of a joke that uses a pun:

How do you count cows?

– With a cowculator!

It should be calculator, but since the word “cow” can sound like the “cal” part of “calculator,” it turns into a joke. 

Here’s another example:

A teacher asked her students to use the word “beans” in a sentence.

– “My uncle grows beans,” said one boy.

– “My mother cooks beans,” said a girl.

A third student said: “We are all human beans.”

The pun in this joke is playing with the words “bean” and human “being” which sound similar when you say them out loud.

If you can understand jokes that use puns or make your own puns that means you really know your English vocabulary!

To play with words, you need to know and understand many words.

In the song below there are a lot of vegetable puns. How many puns can you find?

And here are 10 puns to make you laugh – the “key” words are in italics:

1. The Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages because there were too many knights.
2. England doesn’t have a kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
3. There was a kidnapping at school yesterday. Don’t worry, though – he woke up!
4.  I bought a boat because it was for sail.
5. Why was the baby ant confused? Because all his uncles were ants!
6. Anything is paw-sible when you have a dog.
7. I’m so fur-tunate to have you in my life.
8. Let me tell you a tail.
9. I had a crazy dream last night! I was swimming in an ocean of orange soda. Turns out it was just a Fanta sea.
10. Ladies, if he can’t appreciate your jokes, you need to let that mango.