Newspaper headlines- why are they difficult?

Many non-native speakers of English find news headlines difficult to understand. No wonder, there are several methods that journalists use in order to attract attention of the reader. One of them is a pun -a play on words or a double meaning of words. Check the examples below (I put some clues under both headlines to help you understand):

What's the difference between 'piece' and 'peace'?

Do you understand the word 'undies'?

Other methods that are used by the journalists are shown below:


by mariolahejduk


 As you can see, the authors 'play' with the language to achieve desired effect- the interest of the reader. They leave the words out, they use tenses differently and they exploit double meaning of words. Below, you have a quiz of some words that are used in the headlines frequently. Beware, their meaning in headlines is different from their everyday use. Can you guess the meaning of the following words in headlines?




by mariolahejduk


Finally, do an internet research into headlines that contain the words from the quiz. What can you say about the meaning of the words? Does it match the meaning of the correct answer in the quiz? Or maybe there is yet another meaning to the word, e.g. 'to axe', apart from meaning 'to cut', can also mean 'to remove'. Put your findings and the headlines you found in the comment box!