French puns to make you laugh

A pun - known as un calembour in French - is a joke which plays on the different meanings a word - or two similarly sounding words - can have. Being able to understand or use puns in French is therefore one of the best ways to demonstrate your knowledge of the language and its ambiguities, as well as of French humour in general.

The French love a good joke, so having a selection of good puns to pick from is a sure way to impress your interlocutors. Below are a few simple but effective French puns that are guaranteed to get a giggle from native French speakers.

1. Les petits pois sont rouges ('Peas are red') is a pun on Les petits poissons rouges ('Little red fish')

2. À deux mains ('By/at two hands') is a pun on À demain ('until tomorrow')

3. À toute allure ('At full speed') is a pun on À toute à l'heure ('See you in a bit')

4. Les mots rendent les cris vains ('Words render cries in vain') is a pun on Les mots rendent l'écrivain ('Words make the writer')

1. Quel est le comble pour un électricien ? (What's the worst thing for an electrician?)

De ne pas être au courant (Not being current)

2. Qu’a dit l’imprimeur lorsqu’il est tombé dans l’eau ? ('What did the printer say when he fell into the water?')

J’ai papier ! (This one sounds like J'ai pas pied - 'I can't touch the bottom')

1. Notre but est atteint, comme la tarte du même nom ('Our goal is reached, like the tart of the same name')

This is a clever wordplay by the Belgian comic Philippe Geluck. Swap but for tarte and the phrase sounds reads tarte atteint, which sounds like tarte tatin.

2. De deux choses lune, l’autre c’est le soleil (Of two things, one is the moon, the other is the sun) - Jacques Prévert.

A phrase spoken by the poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, this is a word play on de deux choses l'une, which refers to two possibilities. Here those possibilities are the sun and the moon - or lune, which sounds a lot like l'une.

3. Les bricoleurs du dimanche en ont marre tôt (Sunday handymen get tired of it early)

This is a word play on marre tôt, which sound like marteau, meaning a hammer.