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The English language is a mystery to all of us, whether you’ve been speaking it since day one or just started learning it. From its bizarre spelling rules to its free-for-all grammar, it’s a daily struggle just trying to form sentences that make sense. No wonder people are turning to emojis to express their thoughts rather than coping with weird grammar rules that lead to some of the funniest English language jokes.

Unless you live in the Tibetan mountains or belong to an Amazonian tribe, you’ve definitely come across weird English words in use. It’s the most widely-studied language globally, linking countries and continents. Because of the rise of American power and influence, English has spread like wildfire across the globe through movies, music, and literature. That doesn't mean it’s a walk in the park.

Take a look at some of the most frustrating moments with this language, which will make you realize why English is so hard to learn. You don't have to look long for funny English language jokes, as they’re all there in our everyday vocabulary. Don’t forget to check out our similar posts about French and German language jokes; they might be even better than these jokes about the English language.

#1

The Many Meanings Of 'Only'

English language joke about word "only"

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#2

Weird English Language Tongue Twister

English language joke about through tough thorough thought, though

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Yvonne Bernal
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They should have said “I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit. Upon the slitted sheet I sit"

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#3

The Order Of Adjectives

English language joke about native English speakers

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Hans
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never thought about it. Awesomely old straight vivid logic.

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#4

It’s Just English Man, It’s Just English

It’s Just English Man, It’s Just English

Cr1sOnTop Report

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#5

English Language Pronunciation

English language joke about "womb"

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#6

The Odd One Out

English language joke about pineapple

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#7

Same Word, Opposite Meaning

English language joke about "chuffed"

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Hans
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, isn't this the case with many words? Like terrific, or also awful. an aweful beach, to my understanding is one that you do not want to visit, while you definitely want to hand out on an awefully great beach. An if you hear of a terrific beach, you better ask twice. Any native speakers here to explain? Even though I am afraid this might even be different in AE and BE.

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#8

Same Sentence, Different Meanings

English language joke about stressed words

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#9

The Meaning Of Goodbye

English language joke about ways of saying goodbye

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#10

Words That Don't Rhyme

English language joke about words rhyme

gracieness Report

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Yvonne Bernal
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes we spell it "baloney" - And baloney and money don't rhyme either (sigh)

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#11

English Is Weird With Its Silent Letters

English language joke about pronouncing queue

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Claudia Machado
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Queue is a queue where Q is the first and the others are waiting in queue for their chance to appear.

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#12

Know Your A’s

English language joke about pronouncing "a" in Australia

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Evelim C
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just as the word "eleven". Someone please tell Americans to choose one sound? Brasilians have to many words but at least we know how to pronnounce them. .-.

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#13

Correct Grammar vs Kinky Pirate

English language grammar joke

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#14

Why Don’t They Sound Like They’re Spelt?

English language joke about pronunciation

libbylumos Report

#17

English Is a Funny Language

English Is a Funny Language

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Hans
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh, if you still are interested in that, just find a German class nearby. The good thing is, the more weird languages you learn, you more you appreciate if you come across languages that lack the irregularities where you expected them from experience.

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#18

Practice Your Pronunciation

English language joke about pronunciation

crimsun Report

#20

The Mind Cannot Compute

English language joke about spelling

egberts Report

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Gemma Ereza Ferrie
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why it's so important to get kids reading books. I read each of these sentences fine, without confusion through context. Close reading is key to communication and the English language.

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#21

House-Spouse

English language joke about house-wife and house-husband

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#22

Tea Tea, Bread Bread, And Many More

English language joke about tea and bread

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Hans
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same with many, many abbreviations. In many, many other languags. Alas.

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#26

English Triple Contractions

English language joke about english triple contractions

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#30

Is English the Easiest Language to Learn? Doubt

English language joke about you're and your

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Intensive Panda
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

always wondering why even native speakers don't know the difference. Also: if you're unsure about "affect" or "effect" just use "impact" :D

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#31

Traditional vs Simplified

Traditional vs Simplified

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Thor Sten
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, linguistically speaking: AE is an older form of English that had less influence from neighboring languages.

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#32

Autumn vs Fall

English language joke about autumn vs fall

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Yvonne Bernal
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know it works GREAT with "spring ahead and fall back" - in reference to Daylight savings time reminders as to which way to set the clocks (forward or backward)

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#34

Goose And Geese

English language joke about goose and geese

linguisticsyall Report

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Hans
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it is amazing to see how closely many languages are intertwined. Therefore, people talking about "supremacy" of languages will often have no clue. On the other hand, other language families are quite fascinating in comparison, particularly if you consider the "efficiency" of saying something. And then, having isolated non-related languages (like Basque) are truly fascinating.

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#36

It Isn’t What It Is

Meme about English language

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Master Markus
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eggplants were called that because the variety first introduced to the Europeans looked like an egg (you can see them if you look it up, they're white), pineapple was called that because it looks like a pine cone and "apple" was a generic word for "fruit", hamburger is from the "Hamburg steak" which is a kind of ground beef dish. Here are theories about the "guinea pig": http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/12/how-did-the-guinea-pig-get-its-name.html

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#39

Funny English Where Everything Fits Together

Meme about english language

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#41

A Jar

Meme about Jar Jar in the Jar

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Intensive Panda
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

now enter "ajar jarjar in a jar in an ajar jar" in google translator and click on "pronounce" 🤣😂🤣

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#43

When English Is Not Your Native Language

Meme about non native english speakers

Mlle Karensac Report

#44

Literally

Meme about literal meaning

theoatmeal Report

#46

Pronounce Like You Spell

English language joke about pronunciation

heliager Report

#48

Stop This Madness

English language joke about "polish"

kilihasparasites Report

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Thomas Hobbs
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You should read "polish" as "polish", but don't read "polish" as "Polish", or "Polish" as "polish"..

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#49

English is Weird

English language joke about "can't"

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Your Friendly Neighbourhood Panda
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think about this too all the time! I've decided that instead of "Why can't you" being "Why can not you," it means "Why can you not," despite the basic grammar rules being weird. I guess it's just implied?

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#51

English Language is Contradictory

English language joke about "monosyllabic" having five syllables

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#52

Aisle Be There for You

English language joke about "aisle" and "isle"

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Jessica Westbrook
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That also depends on accent. I'll isn't pronunced the same as aisle and isle where I'm from on the States.

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#53

Brain Hurty

English language joke about "had" and "had had"

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rai mei
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it's weird cause in our language had-had means tinea cruris in medical terms. hahaha

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#55

One for All and All for One

English language joke about "say" and "tell"

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#56

Dedicated Rick Roll

English language joke about Rick Astley music video

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Alex Matencio
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Rickrollé in French, which is the basic way in French to appropriate an English word

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#57

Make It Make Sense

English language joke about word play

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Collin Cantrell
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Am I the only one who thought 13 had more to do with the usage of "to" vs "too" than pronouncing close?

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#59

Beauty in Language

English language joke about 100 most beautiful words

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Daria B
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Meh, most of these aren't even English words. Yep! I'm petty and snobby.

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#60

Weird English Language Nightmare

English language joke about "y'all'd've"

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#61

Preposition Problems

English language joke about about prepositions

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May Jeanette Fast
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I could be wrong but here's why I think it makes sense. January is a month, a month is a time period that contains somethings (weeks and days) so for anything that contains anything, we say it's in it. "Oh the dinner is in the fridge" For Wednesday it's a day, and many times people ask when something is happening or "when is it on?" and so you say it's "on Wednesday". The same goes for time except you say "on at" because the use of "at" when it comes to clock time is due to the use of the clock. At is used to describe where the clock hand is at.

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#62

Many Words With The Same Meanings

English language joke about "I've not" and "I haven't"

prettylittlesinflower Report

#64

Pretty Odd

English language joke about being pretty

rawrmylollypop Report

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Maeldwyn
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've been told I'm half pretty and half ugly. I guess that makes me pretty ugly.

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#67

It’s Confusing, Isn’t It?

English language joke about "It's what it's"

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Crystal Poe
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nooo. I say It is what it is all the time. This one messed with me worse than all the others combined.

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Are Jokes Based on Plays on Words Mostly an English Language Thing?

Although there are many English language fails in this list, it also lends itself to many clever puns. But English isn’t the only language with double entendres or witticisms. Wordplay is quite common in oral cultures, whereas text-based (orthographic) puns are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, such as Mandarin Chinese. In fact, in Sweden, the city of Gothenburg is well-known for its puns.

English is frustrating and often weird, but it lends itself to beautiful wordplay and sentences that just roll off the tongue. Still, we must laugh at its crazy grammar, which can’t be replicated in any other language. Let us know in the comments if you’ve encountered any funny English fails or double meanings. We’d sure love to get a laugh out of it!