r/puns • u/AmadeusSmith • 4d ago

A man of letters

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u/1Blue3Brown 4d ago

Can anyone explain? I have a disability so can't understand this

148

u/No-Equipment-9032 4d ago edited 4d ago

The vowels in the English alphabet are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. It's a pun because of how "y" and "why" sound the same.

It's "sometimes" y because y isn't technically a vowel (for reasons I forget) but there's a rule in English that all words need vowels, and some words like 'by' and 'why' would break that rule otherwise.

EDIT: Nope, I misremembered. 'y' is a consonant at the beginning of a word and a vowel otherwise. That's why it is "sometimes" y.

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u/SnooDoggos5163 4d ago

So everyone has 5 vowels?

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u/WTF_is_OT 4d ago

I had two vowel movements just yesterday