Learn English – “Do You Dreams Come True”: A clever pun or just bad English

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There's a Japanese band called "Dreams Come True", and on March 21st (2009) they released an album entitled: "Do You Dreams Come True". The title of the album has troubled me since this time.

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src: http://cdinfo.s201.xrea.com/media/1/DreamsComeTrue_DoYouDreamsComeTrue.jpg

"Do You…" here is being used in the sense of "Do You Rock" or "Do You [some transitive verb]" (which is improper but somehow acceptable), and this is being combined with the phrase "Do [Your] Dreams Come True?".

Now, I simply can't imagine an American band actually using a pun like this as an album title. In fact, I can't imagine this pun being used by a native English speaker at all. That said, I also can't precisely tell you why this is the case, except to guess that "acceptable puns" in colloquial or formal English should rely on less obvious grammatical errors. Is there a technical reason why this pun "feels wrong"?

(By the way, let me know if this question is unacceptable or off-topic and it will be deleted ASAP)

[Update] There is a short Google.groups discussion from 2009 regarding this album title and the verbification of DCT: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/honyaku/Fbshb4i0sEI/czUx51VR3v4J

Best Answer

I find it an interesting question in the sense that it stretches the discussion of just what can and can't be verbed. I am unsure as to the exact evolution of the following, but it seems that "Do you drink coffee first thing in the morning" may have led to "Do you 'do' coffee first thing in the morning?", which would be understandable (even if quite colloquial and absent from style usage manuals) as "Do you 'coffee' first thing in the morning?", with replies like "Yes, I coffee any time", or "No, I don't ever coffee, I'm more of a tea person" etc.

So "Do you 'Dreams Come True'?" looks like a 'verbing' of "do you listen to 'Dreams Come True'?" and hence a valid, if slightly obscure, pun of "Do your dreams come true?". I'd find it more attractive if they had used a slightly different colour or font for the "Dreams Come True" part - of course quote marks would have worked but probably spoilt the pun.

There is discussion on verbing, or verbifying, in lots of places. See here, for example.

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