… mache ich ger­ne als warm-up am Anfang der Stun­de oder (falls noch ein paar Minu­ten übrig sind) am Stun­den­en­de. Um die ver­schie­de­nen Bedeu­tun­gen zu erklä­ren wech­seln wir ins Deut­sche. Gute Wort­spie­le von Schü­lern wer­den natür­lich immer mit einem MO hono­riert. Hier ein paar mei­ner favou­ri­tes:

1. A bicy­cle can’t stand on its own becau­se it’s too tired / two tired.

2. A boi­led egg in the mor­ning is hard to beat (nicht zu über­tref­fen / aufzuschlagen).

3. A man was arres­ted at the air­port, just becau­se he was gree­ting his cou­sin Jack! All he had said was „Hi Jack“ (hijack: entführen).

4. Arti­fi­ci­al kne­es and elbows were deve­lo­ped during a joint pro­ject (joint: Gelenk / gemeinsam)

5. Artists know whe­re to draw the line (zeich­nen / Gren­ze ziehen).

6. Doc­tors feel fine on ships becau­se they are accus­to­med to see / sea sickness.

7. If you are pre­pa­ring a pre­sen­ta­ti­on about guns, be sure to know how to use bul­lets (Kugeln / Aufzählungszeichen).

8. If you said you were from South Ame­ri­ca, I would not Boli­via (belie­ve you).

9. In the old days, yel­ling at your neigh­bor across the street was a long distance call.

10. It’s bet­ter to love a short girl than not a tall (not at all).

11. Mara­thon run­ners with bad shoes suf­fer the pain of defeat (the feet).

12. One day an Eng­lish grammar tea­cher was loo­king ill. A stu­dent asked, „What’s the mat­ter?“ „Ten­se,“ ans­we­red the tea­cher. The stu­dent pau­sed, then con­tin­ued, „What was the mat­ter? What has been the mat­ter? What had been the mat­ter … ?“ (ten­se: ange­spannt / gram­mat. Zeit)

13. Rea­ding while sun­bathing makes you well red (well-read).

14. Santa’s hel­pers are sub­or­di­na­te clau­ses (cf. San­ta Claus unter­ge­ord­ne­te Nebensätze).

15. Seven days wit­hout a pun makes one weak (week).

16. Some peo­p­le still think that wri­ting long sto­ries is a novel ide­al (neu / Roman).

17. Someone who makes bicy­cle wheels is a spo­kes per­son (Spre­cher / Speiche).

18. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a bana­na (Frucht­flie­gen).

19. Under­ta­kers usual­ly have a gra­ve atti­tu­de even if they are dying to get busi­ness (gra­ve: ernst­haft / Grab, die to do = unbe­dingt etwas tun wollen).

20. Upon dis­co­ve­ring her child­ren play­ing with matches, their mother was fla­ming mad.

21. Wai­ting for her pho­tos to be deve­lo­ped, a young girl sang, “Some day my prints (prin­ce) will come.”

22. When a clock is hun­gry, it goes back four seconds (Sekun­den / zwei­ter Gang).

23. When an actress saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought she would die (dye).

24. When I talk to her about com­pu­ters, I make my mother­board (mother bored).

25. When Ruth fell off the motor­cy­cle her boy­fri­end dro­ve on Ruthl­ess­ly (ohne Ruth / rücksichtslos).

26. When she mar­ried she got a new name and a dress (address).

27. When the lover met his girl again on a fog­gy day, he whispe­red, “I mist (missed) you”.

28. When their boy was litt­le, they only got rest after son down (son „down“, i.e. in bed / sundown).

29. When two ego­tists meet, it’s an I for an I (Bible: eye for an eye).

30. You can tune a pia­no but you can’t tuna-fish.