Brain Teaser Sound Swap

You’re listening to A Way with Words, a program about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And climbing down from his gravity boots to join us is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hey, John.

Hi, John.

Your face is a little red.

I’m a little dizzy, yeah.

But it’s fine, yeah.

So I feel good.

I feel good being upside down for a while.

But now that I’m right side up, I got a little quiz for you guys.

And this one has the jaunty title of phonetic head and tail swap.

Now, don’t be alarmed. Don’t be alarmed. We’re just going to look at words that, when you swap their first and last sounds, they become each other. They become other words.

Phonetic head and tail swap. Okay, let’s try this.

Yeah, it’s simple. For example, the word look. If you swap its head and its tail sounds, you get cool.

Cool, right. That’s cool. Cool. And it’s phonetic because you’re not just switching the letters. The L stays the same, but the K becomes a C, or the C becomes an L, or whatever.

Now, I’ll give you a sentence that clues two words, which are head and tail swaps.

Here we go.

I enjoy the sensation of the page in my hand.

Oh, page in the hand.

I do love the tactile feel of the leaf of a book.

Yes, that’s one of the reasons we read books.

Yes, for the feel of the leaf.

Good.

Sir Lancelot, you’ve bent the prong of that fork.

You bent the prong of that fork, and that’s not euphemistic.

No, it’s not.

It’s actual.

You’re bent my Wookiee.

Okay, so what else is the prong of a fork but a tine?

Oh, tine and night.

Tine and night.

Tine and night.

Yes, very good.

Now, my finger is so rigid I can’t clench my hand.

Oh, so it’s stiff.

Yeah.

And you can’t make a fist.

That’s correct.

So stiff, I can’t make a fist.

Okay, just lightly touch the hedge.

Oh, bush.

Brush the shrub.

Brush the shrub, yeah.

Like I said, I could make these longer.

I’d say, hey, when you put your car in,

Make sure you just lightly touch the hedge,

But you really only need lightly touch and hedge.

I’m trying to make them short.

Thank you.

All right, good.

Hey, don’t poke my emblem of office.

Don’t make me touch the sign.

Always.

That’s exactly.

Always good advice.

Don’t poke the emblem of office.

Logo badge.

Badge?

Ooh.

Oh, badge.

Don’t.

Don’t grab my badge.

Jab the badge.

Oh, jab.

Don’t jab the badge, man.

Another one of those where you go by sound, not spelling.

Yes, exactly.

The DGE becomes a J.

There we go.

Hey, you guys did fantastic on that quiz.

Good job.

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