A two-syllable, five-letter word keeps the same pronunciation when you remove its first letter, its last letter, or the letter in the exact middle. The trick depends on the sounds of the remaining letters, not on a hidden definition. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What Five-Letter Word Sounds the Same After You Delete Three Letters?”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, a show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette, and I have a riddle for you.
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
I’m thinking of a five-letter word. You take away the first letter, and the word still sounds the same. You take away the last letter, and the word still sounds the same. You can even take away the letter in the very middle, and it still sounds the same. What in the world could that word be?
Well, it’s not Q because if you take off the Q at the beginning, it doesn’t sound like Q anymore.
We have Q.
Let’s see.
Oh, I probably knew this at one time.
I don’t know.
The word is empty. E-M-P-T-Y. You take away the first letter, you still have M-T. You take away the last letter, you still have M-T. And you take away the letter in the middle, you take away the P, and you still have M-T.
M-T.
That’s very clever.
Well, I have some more. I’ll share them later in the show. I’ll go back to find my 8-year-old self. This show is riddled with riddles.
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