For this week’s puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been swapping out a single letter within each of three words in a category. Suppose, for example, the category is fruit. What three fruits might you produce by changing just one letter in each of the following words: apply, tango, gropes. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Letter Swaps Language Quiz”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Martha Barnette.
I’m Grant Barrett, and coming in here with clown shoes and a big red nose, it’s our quiz guy, John Chaneski.
Hi, John.
Well, honk, honk, you guys. It’s me again. There’s nothing funny about being a clown, let me tell you.
All right, let’s do a quiz, and this week the quiz is called, I call it change groups. In this quiz, I’ll give you three words, and they all belong to the same category group. For instance, let’s say fruits. A single letter has been changed in each of the three words. So as per the example fruits, you might hear apply, tango, gropes. And the words would be apple, right?
Go ahead.
And then the other two.
Yeah, apple, mango, grapes.
Yes, very good. Apple, mango, grapes. Now, first try to, you know, suss out the members of the category and then guess the group category. And then, you know.
All right. So you want us to say the name of the category and then say what they’re really supposed to be.
Well, probably the easiest way to get the category is to try to figure out what one or two of the words in the group are substituting for.
Good, Tim. Thank you for that.
Okay? Good.
Okay, here we go. One letter different.
Yes, exactly. And it could be the first letter. It could be the last letter. It could be one in the middle. It doesn’t matter. Here we go. Grout, tuba, shirk.
I think these are fish.
They are fish.
Oh, nice. Now, what three fish are they?
Trout, tuna, and shark.
Yes, trout, tuba, and shark. Well done. Off to a swimming start.
Slickers, twit, pounds.
Slickers, twit, pounds. P-O-U-N-D-S.
Yes. Okay, so I’m guessing it’s candy.
Candies is correct. At Snickers and Mounds and what’s the one in the middle?
Twit. Twix. Twix.
Yes. Very good. I was very excited to find to get one right. Way to go, you Twix.
All right. Here’s another one. Picky. Thump. Sing.
It’s the fingers. So ring, thumb, and pinky.
Yes. Ring, thumb, and pinky. Very good. Here’s the next one. Tip sold solver. Tip sold solver. This is when you buy the answers from John before we record this. Meet me in the back alley.
Okay. I’m going to guess these are metals.
They are metals. So you got tin, gold, and silver.
Tin, gold, and silver. Very good, Martha. Well done. One, two, three. Congrats.
I appreciate that you tell us we did well, even though we didn’t.
It’s good for my psyche.
You did.
That’s right.
Well, we’re sending you back to the circus, John. Thank you so much for sharing your genius with us.
Thank you.
Where’s my unicycle? Does anyone have used several times here? Where is that unicycle?
All right. We’ll talk to you next week, John.
Bye, guys.
Talk to you there.
Bye-bye.
Well, if you want to talk about any form of wordplay or language at all, we’d love to hear from you. 877-929-9673. That’s toll-free in the U.S. and Canada. Or you can send us an email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
