Wordplay and Puns
Word parts make jokes: read a word by wrong parts, or coin a playful new word.
How It Works
| Word | Read as parts | Really |
|---|---|---|
| haringo | har-ingo (hair holder) | herring |
| okulo | ok-ulo (an eight person) | eye |
| kolego | kol-ego (a huge neck) | colleague |
| lumbriko | lum-briko (a light brick) | earthworm |
PMEG calls these words seeming compounds. They look as if they were built from parts, but they are not. Reading them by wrong parts is a common game, and it only works because real Esperanto words can be read by their parts.
A second kind of wordplay coins a word on the spot with regular affixes. Anyone who knows -aĉ- (bad) and -et- (small) understands aŭtaĉo and aŭteto at once.
Wordplay is for fun. Use it with readers who know the game.
Examples (5)
- Kofi manĝas haringon, ne har-ingon.
Kofi eats a herring, not a hair holder.
Har-ingo is a wrong reading of haringo, made for the joke.
- Mi havas du okulojn, ne du ok-ulojn.
I have two eyes, not two eight people.
Ok-ulo reads okulo as eight plus person.
- Mia kolego ne havas kol-egon; li havas tute ordinaran kolon.
My colleague does not have a huge neck; he has a quite ordinary neck.
Kol-ego is a wrong reading of kolego.
- Lumbriko ne estas lum-briko, sed speco de vermo.
An earthworm is not a light brick but a kind of worm.
Lum-briko reads lumbriko as light plus brick.
- Hiro nomas sian malnovan aŭton aŭtaĉo kaj sian novan aŭton aŭteto.
Hiro calls his old car aŭtaĉo and his new car aŭteto.
The regular affixes -aĉ- and -et- make clear coinings.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Wordplay uses the regular parts of words.
Related Patterns
Practice Wordplay and Puns in Bubblegum
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Esperanto lessons at your level. Tap any grammar point in a lesson to see its full explanation.
