Wordplay, double meanings and humour

Humour is one of the last things to arrive in a foreign language, because it depends on knowing several meanings at once. Spanish humour leans heavily on puns (juegos de palabras), literal readings of idioms and hyperbole.

One word, two meanings (polysemy)

Many everyday words have several unrelated meanings, and jokes switch between them.

• En la tienda de pegamentos siempre hay mucha cola.In the glue shop there's always a big queue.

Idioms taken literally

A joke often puts an idiom in a context where its literal meaning also works.

• Al relojero lo despidieron porque no daba ni la hora.The watchmaker was fired because he wouldn't even give anyone the time of day.
• Mi dentista y yo tenemos una relación de tira y afloja.My dentist and I have a push-and-pull relationship.

To get these you need the idioms themselves (Everyday idioms: tomar el pelo, estar hecho polvo, ponerse las pilas, Idioms and set phrases for B2).

• El jefe me ha tomado el pelo otra vez.The boss has pulled my leg again.
• Le dieron calabazas en la primera cita.He got turned down on the first date.

Same sound, different word (homophones)

Because b and v sound the same everywhere, and ll and y sound the same for most speakers (yeísmo), Spanish has many homophones: vaya, valla, baya; tuvo, tubo; cayó, calló; hola, ola; hecho, echo. With seseo, casa and caza also merge (Regional variation: voseo, ustedes, seseo and ceceo, vocabulary).

• No sé si se cayó o se calló, pero no volvió a decir nada.I don't know whether he fell over or fell silent, but he didn't say another word.

Calambur: regrouping syllables

A calambur regroups the same sounds into different words. A traditional riddle: Oro parece, plata no es hides plátano. The anecdote attributed to Quevedo, offering a queen two flowers, says entre el clavel y la rosa, su majestad escoja, which can be heard as su majestad es coja (her majesty is lame).

• Oro parece, plata no es.It looks like gold, silver it is not.

Hyperbole and set comparisons

Colloquial Spain loves exaggerated comparisons: más largo que un día sin pan (endless), más listo que el hambre (very sharp), más claro que el agua (crystal clear).

• Ese discurso fue más largo que un día sin pan.That speech went on forever.

Latin America

Wordplay is universal, but the stock of double meanings differs. Some words that are innocent in Spain are vulgar elsewhere (coger in much of Latin America, concha in Argentina and Chile), and Mexican albur is a whole tradition of sexual wordplay. When in doubt, use the neutral word.

Common mistakes

• Translating the pun: the joke usually lives in one Spanish word and disappears in English.
• Missing the literal layer of an idiom: dar marcha atrás is both to backtrack and to reverse a car.
• Forgetting yeísmo: for most speakers cayó and calló are a perfect pun.
• Taking hyperbole literally: más largo que un día sin pan says nothing about bread.
• Using coger everywhere: in much of Latin America it raises unwanted laughs.