❖ Unit 2 ❖ Humour ❖ Vocabulary ❖

Words about Humour

The vocabulary of humour opens up a rich field: words for laughter, jokes, comedians, and reactions. Mastering these collocations and word families lets you talk and write naturally about comedians, comedy and laughter.

Core vocabulary — definitions

Word	Definition
humour	Anything that makes you laugh; the quality of being funny.
a joke	A short story that causes laughter.
an impression	An imitation of someone to make people laugh.
to make fun of	To make a joke about someone.
to kid	To say something as a joke (not seriously).
silly	Ridiculous or stupid.
witty	Using words in a clever and funny way.
humorous	Funny, or making you laugh.
a comedian / humorist	A person whose job is to make others laugh.
a sitcom	A situation comedy: a humorous TV series.
a pun	A play on words for comic effect.
satire	Humour that criticises society or politics.

Collocations — fixed expressions

These fixed combinations appear in almost every text on humour. Learn them as blocks, not as separate words.

burst into laughter — to suddenly start laughing loudly
tell a joke / tell a story — to narrate something funny
make fun of someone — to mock somebody
have a sense of humour — to be able to enjoy jokes
have an artistic talent — to possess a creative ability
a funny story — a comic anecdote
have fun — to enjoy yourself
crack a joke — to suddenly tell a joke

Word families

Adjective	Noun	Verb
funny	fun	—
humorous	humour	—
happy	happiness	—
laughable	laughter / laugh	to laugh
stressed / stressful	stress	to stress
sad	sadness	to sadden
entertaining	entertainment	to entertain
amusing	amusement	to amuse

Practice 1 — Use the collocations

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate collocation

The show was really funny. Everybody burst into laughter.
When I was a child, I used to ask my grandmother to tell me a funny story before I sleep.
Hassan Elfad and Jamal Debbouze really have a sense of humour. They can make people laugh.
Marrakshi people like to make fun of their friends.
You can't become a humorist if you don't have an artistic talent.

Practice 2 — Form the noun

Give the noun for each word

funny → fun
humorous → humour
happy → happiness
laugh (verb) → laughter
stressed → stress
sad → sadness
entertain → entertainment

❖ Key Takeaways ❖

① Three groups to memorise

① Words for kinds of humour (joke, pun, satire) · ② Words for people (comedian, humorist) · ③ Words for reactions (laughter, burst into).

② Collocations are testable

The exam often asks: "Fill in the blanks with the right collocation". Always learn the whole expression — never the verb alone.

③ Build word families

Adjective + noun + verb when possible. Humour / humorous, laugh / laughter / laughable, entertain / entertainment / entertaining.

❖ Exam tip

Vocabulary from Unit 2 frequently appears in cloze tests (fill-in-the-blanks). Pay special attention to collocations: examiners love to test "burst into ___" and "sense of ___".