Is it as simple as it seems? Maybe not.Q: This week's challenge is not so hard. Take a common English word in 3 letters. Translate it into French — also 3 letters. (The French word is one everyone knows.) And between them these two words consist of 6 different vowels and no consonants. What words are these?
Edit: The title of the post is a hint. While some may say that YEA & OUI is a possible answer, the question does say the words consist of six different vowels and no consonants. In YEA the Y is acting as a consonant so my feeling is that answer should not be accepted (but it was).
A: AYE & OUI
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.
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DeleteI'm confused. What was wrong with my comment?
DeletePlease save specifics on your solution until after the deadline.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSounds as if there is a potential trap.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was easy.
ReplyDeleteIt's like you don't know the answer.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you say that?
DeleteIf I said anything more the cruel blog administrator would smite me. Would I then be smitten?
DeleteCARTOONS OF THE WEEK, Monsieur...
ReplyDeleteThe answer came in about 30 seconds. Unfortunately, I'll not be able to comment here or take a call from NPR on Thursday afternoon. I'll be in the air with my phone in airplane mode.
ReplyDeleteWay too easy. Back to bed.
ReplyDeleteLiving here in the deep south- in a deeply red state is a little different from Seattle inclinations. Culture shock.. Insley has been getting a fair amount of press here with his -"amazing climate plan for the world." ITT.
DeleteRecord yourself saying the English word, then play the result backwards.
ReplyDeleteSome might say the result of that sounds like the same word translated into German, while to others it sounds like the same word translated into one of the Scandinavian languages.
Record yourself saying the French word, then play the result backwards, and the result of that sounds like either of two English language words (obviously homophones of each other).
Once in a while the Puzzlemaster has to toss out something easy, keeps folks interested. And Joseph Young (aka "the Puzzlemaster in waiting") has given us a cute, albeit easy, challenge.
ReplyDeleteI have a special place in my heart for France; I think I could have been a very successful stand-up comic in Paris. Every time I said something people would laugh.
eye = œil The "l" is silent, not pronounced, not there at all...
ReplyDeleteOr you can add an "r" to the end of the French word to yield a verb, one of the six senses.
DeleteAnd its plural is yeux - interestingly yeux shares only one letter with its singular, or none if one considers the ligature œ as a different letter.
DeleteWhen I said "the French word" I meant the 3-letter French word that is the answer to this week's challenge.
Deleted'accord
DeleteA bit of trompe l'oeil, as it were.
DeleteElle t'aime?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love you guys.
ReplyDeleteLegoPuzzlemasterInWanting(Definition#2)
If anyone but Lego had supplied Shortz with this puzzle, I would think it was to prove the Master's claim that he doesn't try to solve submissions himself before broadcasting them.
ReplyDeleteIt took a matter of minutes to come up with the two equally valid English parts of the answer.
Last week's challenge was pretty good, if tough. I am surprised he never provided attribution. Was it his own?
Speaking from experience, Will occasionally claims puzzles that were submitted by listeners to be his own.
DeleteWell as well him as another.
DeleteAnd since obscurantism never rests, this is a quote from Molly Bloom's final soliloquy, which ends with the famous line "yes I said yes I will Yes," which is, after all, what this week's puzzle is all about. Easy puzzles require hard clues.
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DeleteNot to sound a little piggish but this puzzle is way too easy.
ReplyDeleteI looked up the definitions of the two possible words and compared their meanings as adverbs, interjections, and nouns and it seems like they are interchangeable. With two possible answers, I wonder which one Will is shooting for.
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ReplyDeleteWow, I've been here for several years and this is the first comment Blaine has ever stepped upon. I repent, dear puzzle overlord.
DeleteBen, the first time is the hardest.
DeleteBen, I can understand your post being a help while Unknown's was still up and running, but not after it was removed. However, that being said, I will not ever again acknowledge you when I see you in public. Just too risky.
DeleteThe first cut.
Delete**different “unknown” than above** Now I’m dying to know what both posts said! It would be cool if all removed posts could be revealed on Thursday too.
DeletePs: How do you get “reply as” option other than Unknown? I’d like to be a known known or at least a known unknown
I don't know if Will Shortz ever reads this blog, but this one is for him:
ReplyDeleteFans erupt as Belgian table tennis legend scores final point before retiring.
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ReplyDeleteYup it is.
DeleteThinking this over last night, I realized my nuance detector has atrophied after years of the Sunday Puzzle.
DeleteNice going, WW and thanks, Lego
The neon sign pointing turned a perfectly good clue into muck. Clever nuance flies out the fenêtre when one starts explaining another's clues.
DeleteTo be clear, the two comments overly explaining my clue were from geofan (below), not from Mendo Jim. More forthcoming on 5/30.
Delete[I have had inquiries off-blog.]
Whew! :)
DeleteAfter not getting the answer to the last 2 puzzles, it was nice to get this one. To quote my wife, "Good, now you won't be driving me crazy this week!"
ReplyDeleteI'll have some single malt later to celebrate and think of how when my sons were young they'd love to go downhill sledding.(AKA belly flopping). Although there are some clues in this posting, belly flopping isn't one of them.
a.333 batting average is not that bad.
DeleteActually, as I think about it, the phrase was "Belly Whopping".
ReplyDeleteSojourning here in the south far from sunny Seattle you see some interesting church signs. This one you may like" Life is a puzzle- come here Sunday to find the missing peace."
ReplyDeleteCute huh.
I meant to ask last week ,but is W an enigmatologist?
ReplyDeleteMother goose often rode in a caboose and had no geese to gander. Along came a spider and sat down beside her. And she coded.
ReplyDeleteJavascript or Python?
DeleteYEA-OUI.
DeleteThe classic rhyme of "This little pig went to market and went wee,wee,wee, all the way home."
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ReplyDeleteR.E.M.'s "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)" from 1982 was a clue last week. A song from a year later by an obscure, debatably one-hit-wonder band is a clue this week.
ReplyDeleteAEIOU by Ebn-Ozn
DeletePuzzle: name a six-letter word with two syllables and none of the vowels a, e, i, o, or u.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm - tsktsk? rhythm? syzygy (3 syllables)?
Deletespryly?
DeleteSometimes being a slave isn't all bad.
Deleteflybys
DeleteCzech (and other Slavie languages) is noted for consonant clusters. For example:
ReplyDeletečtvrt = quarter(ed)
mrkva = carrot
pstruh = trout
zmrzlina = ice cream
When I visited a friend last August near Brno and observed this fact, her son made a dinner for me that consisted of these 3 dishes. With correct case endings:
čtvrt mrkve se pstruhy a zmrzlinou
Next you'll be telling us it tasted just like Czechen.
DeleteWas the correct case ending for the zmrzlina/zmrzlinou the dairy case?
DeleteLegoWhoBelievesOurCurrentPresidentDinesOnASteadyDietOfCarrotsOrangeSherbetAndOrangeRoughy
How appropriate that tRump eats Orange Roughy. Before the PR people renamed it, it was known as the Slimehead.
DeleteSo I've taken the rare step of lodging a PROTESTATION OFFICIELLE with Will, as I believe the Puzzle this week is in error.
ReplyDeleteI won't get into details here until Thursday at the deadline, of course. But I speak passable French and think Joseph's/Will's instruction is incorrect.
I also benefit from having a pile of native French cousines/cousins, native Parisians all, and I ran my thoughts by two of them.
The Frogs confirmed that, if Will's intended answer is what I suspect we all suspect it is, then the Puzzle is in error!
Restez à lécoute!
Will has convinced me that my PROTESTATION is in error. Details on Thursday.
ReplyDelete“Come at the king, you best not miss.”
-- Omar Little, The Wire
If I have the right answer, two synonyms in English could work, and they are also anagrams of each other
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DeleteSometimes a puzzle has a surprise catch. I'll remember this one to spring on my grandkids.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I enjoyed a trip through a wrong answer before the elegance of the right one. Another nice puzzle, Lego. Cheers!
DeleteThank you, hugh, mike_hinterberg and Lancek.
DeleteIt's an honor to be a part of something fun sprung on your progeny, hugh. And, "elegance" and "beautiful bit of wordplay" are perfect expressions of my goal when creating puzzles, mike and Lancek.
LegoBuoyed
This is such an unexpectedly beautiful bit of wordplay that it deserved to be discovered rather than revealed. Did lego's original submission end the same way as Will's version? Even at that, I think there is one more beautiful secret to be discovered by the careful solver.
ReplyDeleteMemorial Day is designed to keep the wars going. I hate it.
ReplyDeleteA better way to remember would be to read the very short book by Major-General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier.
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Here is a taste:
Smedley D. Butler quotes:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
But remember it was Butler who spoiled the Business Plot, and that was downright unAmerican!
DeleteThink twice next time when you see an ad on TV or radio promoting a "Memorial Day" sale. To me, it kind of cheapens the true meaning of the holiday when all it means is a sale going on at the store or car dealership.
DeleteI take a very different view. I think those ads are the only true meaning of the holiday. In other words the reality is that Memorial Day is about corporate greed. Don't you see that we are all being brainwashed into going along with their wars in order for them to become even more rich? All day they have been reporting on all the war dead who gave their lives to defend our country. Do you really believe Vietnam, Korea, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other wars since WWII had anything to do with defending our borders? We have not been under attack by any country militarily. Until we wake up and take control we will continue to have these illegal and immoral wars. Killing is wrong and evil.
DeleteGold Stars, medals, flags on coffins, burial at Arlington and all the rest are nothing more than cheap trinkets to entice more kids into being suckered into going to wars that will make more war profiteers. None of this money is going toward repairing our infrastructure, such as potholes, bridges etc. How is this working for you?
I think we are both digusted at the same thing but just saying things from a different point of view. Originally I think M. Day was a good idea.
DeleteTo me, there are several ironic things about Memorial Day these days, though. On one hand, far fewer people have died in battle over the last few decades and on the other hand, these days, the real meaning of it is lost on most people.
When I was younger, Memorial Day had a connection to most people. Whether it was family, a neighbor or a friend, almost everyone knew someone touched by war. Back then, a majority of people either personally lost someone in WW1, WW2 or Korea. Vietnam was just gaining momentum towards it's slow, eventual and awful run.
Now, wars are mostly fought by a small percentage of the population and are just seen on TV news. There is no draft, so far fewer social classes are affected by being sent to a war, far, far away. Sure, there are still "boots on the ground" but nowadays, they seem to be soldiers who are on their second or third deployments. How many fewer flash points would we have these days if there was conscription rather than a volunteer army?
Another ironic thing about modern warfare is the lower casualty rates. Lower casualties are great, of course, but it makes the cost of war less apparent. Wars are also increasingly fought now by drones and/or push button technology from bases in the middle of the country. Plus, it makes it easier politically to send people into battle.
Maybe these days the young people thinking of joining up might finally see through the way Trump is just using them when he threatens to send them to the Mexican border or to Iran. And, of course Trump is not the first to use our troops for political gain. Unfortunately, when the economy faces a downturn, people are all too happy to enlist.
Lower casualties and more TBI's with forever negative consequences.
DeleteAlso "Johnny Got his Gun".Why I became a draft dodger during NAM.
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ReplyDeleteOh, no. (or, in French "Eau, non.")
ReplyDelete2ez
ReplyDeleteYou! → a close synonym: Aïe! But not the "intended answer."
ReplyDeleteYou,ouch! → Aïe!
DeleteTrump wishes everybody a "happy" memorial day. I think we can all agree that that is inappropriate. Right arm, SDB.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah!
ReplyDeleteClimbing deaths on Mt. Everest this year have peaked.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone has ecoarchitect's good fortune. As Mark Twain once wrote: “In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”
ReplyDeleteCan anyone here give me advice on how I can go about initiating a GoFundMe quest for start up money for a fetal crematorium?
ReplyDeleteYou can start at at the disco.
DeleteIt really is bizarre. We clip our nails and flush them down the toilet, and no one thinks anything of it. Same happens sometimes when a woman has a miscarriage in the bathroom. Fingers, toes, arms, legs, breasts, penises, kidneys, brain parts and on and on are routinely disposed of in hospitals, and no one seems to pay much attention. But a fetus! Suddenly the world comes to a complete stop. I guess I'm just too stupid to understand. Thank god we have a supreme court to do my thinking for me.
DeleteI'm glad I don't go to your hospital.
DeleteI am slightly sympathetic to some, mostly Catholics, who truly seem to believe that life begins at conception. I don't agree, but at least they have a reason based in some logic.
Everyone with half a brain knows most of the politicians don't believe it. Everyone with a full brain remembers that prior to Ronald Reagan the GOP did not oppose abortion, and that this was a cynical maneuver to garner votes from poor (white) low-income people while every single GOP policy made lives worse.
Guns, misogyny, racism and xenophobia were good starting points with the rubes, but they needed something to ensure people voted against their own interests. What's not to understand?
You might like their Gumbo on Tuesdays.
DeleteNext thing you'll be telling me is that Trump used to be pro abortion.
Or as Henry V says to Katharine: "I will tell thee in French; which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off.“ He then tries to express himself in French, pronouncing it the way only an Englishman can.
ReplyDeleteSo true. When thinking of the French, the English tend to have Chunnel vision.
ReplyDeleteZC, Marque Deux!
ReplyDeleteHas the puzzlemaster seemed distracted lately?
ReplyDelete68C: I hope you didn't go through this.
ReplyDeleteIs that a documentary? Whatever happened to that poor little girl? I just couldn't keep watching.
DeleteLike many from Kansas she died from a drug overdose.
DeleteWell I suppose that is understandable after all she must have gone through. Perhaps you also know if a urinalysis was ever done to determine how that yellow brick road came about?
DeleteEco - We almost did!! There was a mile wide tornado that developed not too far from us yesterday. I had been tracking the storm for a couple of hours as it approached. It was amazing how on radar there was hardly anything showing and all of a sudden it was a super-cell!
DeleteJust amazing how much damage there was. At KCI airport, they had to shut down the airport for 5-6 hrs to clean up the debris that rained down from the neighboring cities.
We did not go down to the basement because it was several miles north and west of us. Besides, Auntie Em wanted to watch Jeopardy on TV.
We have had some pretty bad storms over the last few weeks and my son and his family down in Tulsa have had it much worse.
Auntie Em's life was put in Jeopardy!?
DeleteHaha! She's a real gambler!!
DeleteI hope she didn't bet the farm, nor Toto.
DeletePardon me if I've told this anecdote here before, but Aljean Harmetz' wonderful book "The Making of the Wizard Of Oz," which also tells us things we never would have known about MGM and the studio system and many other topics, reveals the following astonishing coincidence:
DeleteWhen the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan (Prof. Marvel / The Wizard), it decided it wanted one that looked like it had once been elegant but had since "gone to seed." They visited a second-hand store and purchased an entire rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department and director Victor Fleming chose one they felt gave off the perfect appearance of "shabby gentility." One day, while he was on set in the coat, Morgan idly turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had been made for L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had at one time been owned by the author of the original "Wizard of Oz" books. After the filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/trivia?item=tr0781980.
Just glad she doesn't like MASH or we'd all end up S*M*A*S*H*E*D
DeleteZeno C - That is quite a story! Thanks for sharing.
DeleteAt least this tornado happened during the daytime. I think that may have saved some lives because people could see and appreciate the dangers. I hate severe storms that occur after dark.
Delete68C: we all have our preferences, but personally I'd hate to see a tornado that wide in the daytime too. I always think of them as shaped like Twiggy's leg, not Dinky Toadstool's rump.
DeleteMaybe this week it's safer on Everest.
There is some good news out of the Kansas storms; I wonder if the storm chasers were chased out by the evangelicals?
DeleteBefore SDB says it, it was a whirlwind romance.
DeleteNice to view a window into their betrothal.
DeleteI just got back home from dining with neighbors up the street. I was not going to say that, but I was thinking about pointing out that it put a different twist to their romance.
DeleteYou can spin it anyway you want. Needless to say it's a stormy start. I bet they serve funnel cakes at the reception.
DeleteEveryone said it was a crashing success, ending with drop dead excitement.
DeleteDefinitely a low pressure event.
DeleteI suppose you spin it that way.
DeleteYou'll get winded fast if you keep spouting that spin cycl(on)e.
DeleteFirst of all I think your logic on this blows. Secondly there are far better methods of achieving effective crop rotation.
DeleteYEA or AYE >>> OUI (All 3 words mean YES)
ReplyDeleteOUI = AYE or YEA
ReplyDeleteAdd an “r” to the end of “oui” to yield OUÏR = “to hear” in French, one of the 6 senses. Oyez, Oyez, Hear Ye, Hear Ye...
MONSIEUR contains the 3 vowels of the French word “oui.”
Oh, YOU, ouch! = AÏE!
I think it's OUI > AYE, which is why I avoided the active voice in my clue last Sunday. "Not so hard" seemed like a slightly awkward attempt to avoid the word "easy"; and I also thought Will's voice faltered a bit in the middle of "between" (like he sensed a red flag going up in his subconscious). Maybe just my imagination.
ReplyDeleteIf Y is ever a consonant (I'm beginning to wonder if it's ever anything other than a semivowel, whatever that is) then I think it's a consonant in YEA. But where's the consonant in EWE?
Finally, Lego's statement, "I love you guys" has me wondering if Guys flock to the Minnesota lakes for the summer.
AYE in French is OUI
ReplyDeleteI was torn between several possible comments – but was concerned either would earn me a, Deleted by Blog Administrator – so I to just play with the fact this puzzle was too (two) easy.
My two (too) non-comments were:
USNA graduates will find this doubly easy (aye-aye), and
Madagascan Lemur (Aye-Aye).
Since Lego is the puzzle creator, I would love to hear his thoughts on the proposed alternate of YEA & OUI. I'm assuming the point of the puzzle was to come up with AYE where Y is acting as a vowel, not a consonant.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all Blainesvillians for your comments about my puzzle. I created it last November and promptly sent it to Will Shortz with "Yea, Oui (intended answer); Aye, Oui" (alternative answer)." I was so impressed with myself for coming up with two 3-letter words containing all six vowels (yeah, I know, others surely have done this before I did!) that I didn't even consider whether the Y functioned as a consonant or vowel in my French "yesses." The AYE answer is probably "more elegant" than the YEA answer for that reason. I suspect Will's "intended answer" will be YES/AYE, but that he may also either accept YES/YEA or at least mention it on the air as an answer many of the 10,000 people sent in as their entry.
DeleteI have only myself to blame for how easy this puzzle was. I should have spent more time on how I worded it. One of the trickiest arts of puzzle-making is finding that correct balance between too tough and too easy.
If I had a second chance to submit this puzzle to WS, here's how I would write it:
Translate an English word into another language. The two resulting words consist of six letters, all vowels. There is something unique about each of these vowels. What words are these?
Still pretty easy, I know.
The danger of inserting less specificity in your wording (like substituting "another language" for "French") is that it might open the door to multiple correct answers. (AYE in Maori is ORA... who knows what it might be in Basque!)
Anyway, thank again to all. I'll work on making more challenging puzzles.
LegoSaySTheAyesHaveItButSayNayToYea's
Maybe it all Depends if you're inconsonant.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI wrote, “Homophones of the answer words share a grammatical property.” I / WE are the singular and plural first-person nominative case pronouns.
I thought this was a very clever hint, Rob.
DeleteLegoGivesRob'sHintAnotherzHomophone"ABigYAY!
Golly, thanks.
DeleteAYE, OUI
ReplyDeleteYou could argue that the Y in YEA is a consonant, but we may not see eye to aye on that.
In my quest to be the most obscure poster of all, the reference in my second post to "pronouncing it the way only an Englishman can" was a reference to the homophones "I" and "we," both pronouns.
ReplyDeleteThis week's puzzle may have been easy but I'm not complaining, at least we didn't need to consult Amenhotep for any clues!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lego for a easy but fun little puzzle.
AYE, OUI
ReplyDelete"Technically, one of the English words is “better” than the other." pointed toward AYE being more correct than YEA since the former uses the Y as a vowel. Geofan's explaining my clue meant it got zapped on Monday. All nuance was then gone.
Here are those two geofan posts (which were blog administrated) that overly explained my clue:
"But in one of the anagrams, not all the letters are considered vowels. Hence the comment by Word Woman that one is better than the other.
If the Lord Executioner removed my comment, then I feel he should also delete the original comment one is better than the other by Word Woman to the same effect."
Kindergarten graduation today. That was a blast!
Word Woman, I apologize for my comments that caused your post to be deleted. In the future I will strictly avoid making any comments whatsoever on this blog that refer to any other posts.
Deletegeofan
Thanks for your apology, geofan. As long as posts do not explain the intent of another, the banter can be fun. . .But, it is like walking a sandstone fin in Arches National Park in Utah.
DeleteWord Woman -- I promise that, going forward, I will strictly avoid making any comments whatsoever on this blog that refer to any National Parks in Utah. Except this one time -- we went to Zion and Bryce two years ago and it was absolutely spectacular.
Delete;-) Aren't they amazing places?
DeleteWe hiked to Angel's Landing in Zion NP one November, seeing only a handful of people. The clogged trail these days is disheartening. And as to Bryce: hoodoo you think you are?
Disheartening clogged trails? I found these shocking:
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/world/asia/mount-everest-deaths.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/sports/everest-bodies-global-warming.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Here are a few pictures from my son's neighborhood of Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa, OK., taken last Sunday morning. In a different view of that same damage, there were about 4 or 5 more of these, in a row, all knocked down. Some went right through the roofs of these houses. People reported seeing a funnel cloud pass by just before this happened. Fortunately his house was okay, in OK!
ReplyDeleteIt's like you don't know the answer. 2 clues, I almost wrote "it sounds like you" acknowledges both words are homophones for the personal pronouns "I" and "we". But I thought that too easy, and besides, the only sound I hear is the whirring of my computer fan.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you don't kNOw you do YES.
I guess that was obscure enough to avoid the smiter-in-chief.
Lego, I think if you had submitted your harder version of the puzzle it probably would have been edited to much as it ultimately was; WS has recently had a couple of tougher puzzles, and while most in this group get those, I think he wants to satisfy the less intense puzzlers.
I also submitted AYE and OUI.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I went YEA and OUI, but didn't submit it because it seemed wrong. Many have posted here that Y in YEA is used as a consonant. But there is also ANOTHER problem with YEA.
YEA is an informal way of saying YES in English. The French also have an informal "YES" and it is "OUAIS," pronounced the way Americans say "WAY" as opposed to OUI/WEE.
So given the instructions, YEA translates to OUAIS and ruins the puzzle. So I checked with my French cousins (who are actually in fact COUSINES) and then submitted AYE instead.
OUI and AYE
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I did consider YEA as well, but if the Y is only used as a vowel, YEA would not work. Blaine's right.
My comment about being a “little piggish” was referencing the three little pigs who cried wee wee wee (oui oui oui) all the way home.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, captain in Vietnamese is dai uy (dye oui).
ReplyDeleteWhile solving it abed, "yea" seemed as good as "aye."
Later it didn't.
I posted on Sun May 26, at 06:52:00 AM PDT:
ReplyDeleteRecord yourself saying the English word, then play the result backwards.
Some might say the result of that sounds like the same word translated into German, while to others it sounds like the same word translated into one of the Scandinavian languages.
Record yourself saying the French word, then play the result backwards, and the result of that sounds like either of two English language words (obviously homophones of each other).
Aye (phonetically "aw-ee") plays backwards into Ja (pronounced "yaw" - phonetically "ee-aw"), which is "yes" in either German or one of the Scandinavian languages.
The French "oui", pronounced "we" (phonetically "oo-ee"), plays backwards into "you" or "ewe" (phonetically "ee-oo").
Not "yea" but "Aye" got it!
ReplyDeleteThe ``OU'' in ``OUI'' is a semi-vowel, also known as an approximant or approximate consonant. It sounds like ``W,'' a consonant. So, if ``OUI'' is acceptable, ``YEA'' should be equally acceptable, because the ``Y'' is also a semi-vowel.
ReplyDeleteI submitted ``AYE'' and ``OUI'' but added a fuss along the lines of the previous paragraph.
I researched and found that Y in Yea is a semivowel also. Neither answer should be correct. Puzzle did not ask for semi vowels.
DeleteThis week's Puzzleria! has just been uploaded.
ReplyDeleteWe are launching a new feature called "State Capitals & State Capitols," a handful of sneaky-clever puzzles created by "geofan" (whose "non-screen-name" is Ken Pratt).
Open the Puzzlera! link on Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS to access these capital "Kenundrums" about capitals and capitols.
LegoAddsThatKen'sPuzzlesAreGuaranteedToBeMoreChallengingThanJosephYoung'sSixVowelAyeOuiNPRPuzzle!
Attention: Immediate Job Openings!
ReplyDeleteIf it is true, I think it will only endear Trump to Kim more than it already does. He loves strongman leaders, and is most likely asking Barr why he can't do the same here.
DeleteBenefits include the 7.62 Retirement Plan.
DeleteWell we shouldn't criticize other cultures.
Deletemost likely asking Barr why he can't do the same here yet.
DeleteJust don't want to end up in the bottom of a NK "culture dish"!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am so, so nostalgic for the good old days when we could actually savor and enjoy a mass shooting. Now they are so overly hyped they have become simply mundane. Does anyone here share my hope that Mitch McConnell will enact legislation to restore this situation to the way our fumbling fathers intended?
ReplyDeleteIf only...
DeleteIt has recently been leaked by a White House insider that Trump never stands
ReplyDelete-- he is always sitting for every meeting and people carry him in the chair between meetings.
The reason: Attorney General Barr told him that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
"Those who build walls to close borders
may become prisoners of the walls that they build.”
Pope Francis 03/31/2019
What about a lying president?
DeleteThis week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Think of a verb in its present and past tense forms. Drop the first letter of each word. The result will name two vehicles. What are they?
ReplyDeleteThis week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Greg VanMechelen of Berkeley, Calif. Think of a verb in its present and past tense forms. Drop the first letter of each word. The result will name two vehicles. What are they?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, eco!
ReplyDeleteOver 3,000 entries this week. Yes, congrats to ecoarchitect, unmasked.
ReplyDeleteUnhinged. I only hope I don't get the scrutiny you unleashed on Lego's puzzle.
DeleteCongrats, eco!
DeleteDid Will accept both AYE and YES for the English word?
Somewhat begrudgingly, he said something like "the Y in yea is technically a vowel [sic]." I think he meant consonant, but it's way too early out here for me to listen carefully.
DeleteAnd I'm sure he did not accept YES.
DeleteGood puzzle, Eco, and congratulations!
ReplyDelete