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play a joke

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klafterreith

Joined: 25 Nov 2005
Posts: 429

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 1:58 am Post subject: play a joke

They played a joke on us. They made a joke with us. Is there any difference in meaning?

Lorikeet

Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:31 am Post subject: Re: play a joke

klafterreith wrote:

They played a joke on us.

They made a joke with us.

Is there any difference in meaning?

"They played a joke on us." means "they" weren't very nice, and whatever they did, we were the ones that people laughed at. We were the object of the joke. We were the ones who were fooled.

"They made a joke with us." doesn't sound quite native, but the use of "with" instead of "on" implies that we were all part of the joke together.

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