in portuguese, i just came across “por que o vírus da gripe não tem amigos? porque ele é uma má influenza”
translation: “why does the flu virus have no friends? because it’s a bad influenza!”(Influence)
i think it could work in english but sounds better in portuguese.
I’m sure there’s a better example in Ukrainian, but
Як як? Ну як як? Як як як…
Not really a pun and not translateable as a joke, but same word that can repeat to form a sentence.
Joke is a guy went to the zoo and friend is asking him how was yak. He replies with yak was like yak.
In English we have
Which means:
Yeah, verb is kind of a stretch though.
Also relevant: Americans think Bison and Buffalo are the same type of animal.
Something similar in Finnish;
Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon.
Which translates to
Put together the whole bonfire. The whole bonfire together? The whole bonfire together.
Danish has: Far får får får? Nej, får får ikke får, får får lam.
This translates to: Dad, does sheep get (give birth to) sheep? No, sheep don’t get sheep, sheep get lambs.
Or slightly different:
Får får får? Får får ej får, for får får lam.
Similarly, Swedish has
There are several versions of these kinds of puns in German, one version:
Wenn Grillen Grillen grillen, grillen Grillen Grillen.
When crickets barbecue crickets, then crickets are barbecuing crickets.