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I was reading an article about how the humour in the Yakuza games gets translated into English, and in the original Japanese a pun is made.

ふとんがふとんだ

The article says it is a play on words. But I cannot find any explanation online but I do see a reference to it. I can understand "a table is a table" but this isn't really a pun, it would be equivalent to "calling a spade a spade" in English.

Stevoisiak
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VictorySaber
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2 Answers2

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The actual pun is:

「ふとんがふっとんだ」 with a small っ.

and not:

「ふとんがふとんだ」 = "A futon is a futon."

which is what you wrote.

The verb prefix 「ふっ」 is explained here:

What does the word 「ぶったてる」mean?

To use kanji, the phrase is:

「布団{ふとん}がふっ飛{と}んだ。」 = "The futon was blown off."

Thus, it is a legit pun indeed. It is the kind that small kids like to say.

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    A clarification: the verb prefix ふっ here is the contracted combining form of ふき, which is the stem or continuative form of verb 吹【ふ】く _"to blow"_: 吹【ふ】き飛【と】ぶ → 吹【ふ】っ飛【と】ぶ _"to be blown into the air"_. This is not the same as the ぶっ in ぶったてる, where the ぶっ is the contracted combining form of ぶち, the stem or continuative form of verb 打【ぶ】つ _"to strike, to hit"_: 打【ぶ】ち立【た】てる → 打【ぶ】っ立【た】てる _"to build something in a rough or violent fashion"_ (more idiomatically, perhaps _"to slap something together"_). – Eiríkr Útlendi Feb 13 '18 at 21:21
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A pun is a play on words exploiting homophones or similar-sounding words.

The pun in [布団]{ふとん}が[吹っ飛んだ]{ふっとんだ} The futon was blown off is that it sounds almost like 布団が布団だ A futon is a futon, the latter being a complete tautology.

There are many such popular puns, including

  • 犬がいぬ
    A dog is a dog v The dog is gone
  • イルカはいるか
    A dolphin is a dolphin v Is there a dolphin?
  • イクラは幾ら
    Salmon roe is salmon roe v How much is the salmon roe?
  • コンドルは[喜んどる]{よろこんどる}
  • ラクダは楽だ
  • etc. ad nauseam
Earthliŋ
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    The same kind of puns occur in English, too, e.g. "The book about the dragon tended to drag on". – ConMan Feb 13 '18 at 22:45
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    @l'électeur I didn't copy your translation, even if I ended up with the same translation. Given that the sentence consists of two words, a subject and a predicate, there is not much room for alternative translations, although I did consider "blown away" and "blanket"... – Earthliŋ Feb 14 '18 at 13:49