Ooos and Ahhs Word Game

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

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us now is our very wayward quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

I’ve come back from being wayward to come deliver this quiz to you.

I’m going to earn your oohs and ahs the easiest way possible.

I’ll give you a clue to two words.

One word begins with the sound ooh, and the other word begins with the sound.

Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

Right. For example, I was making a traditional Chinese tea, and somehow I messed it up.

The oo tasted aw.

The answer would be…

Oolong.

Oolong tasted…

Awful.

Awful, yes. Very good. So I think you are on board.

Let’s hear some oohs and ahs.

Grant and Martha, I’m reporting live from I-10 near Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles,

where the traffic is terrible.

Everywhere I look, all I can see is oo of aw.

Oodles of cars?

Autos?

Autos.

Automobiles?

Yes, oodles of autos.

Nicely done.

Nice teamwork there.

Here’s the next one.

I own and have read everything Stephen King has ever written.

You can see I’m very familiar with that -oo.

Author’s oeuvre.

Author’s oeuvre, yes.

If you need to find me while in Florence, I’ve been granted a workspace at their famous museum.

You can find me in my ooh—

My oof-feet-sy office.

My oof-feet-sy office. Very good.

I had no idea that my red-brown paint tubes had a leak in it.

I look at the bottom of my backpack, and it’s just ooh—

Oozing all over?

Oozing.

Auburn. I don’t know.

Auburn, yes. Nicely done.

Finally, I’ve been in a bunch of heavy metal bands.

All the successful ones have had a diarysis over at least one of the letters.

If it didn’t, the band was terrible.

Now, my new band has a diarysis over two vowels.

I call those A-U.

Something umlaut.

Right?

Things are looking up.

Auspicious?

Yes.

Auspicious umlauts.

By the way, this is the only place where you will encounter auspicious umlauts

is here on the way with words, just so you know.

That’s true.

Not something you find everywhere.

Anyway, that was a very great quiz you guys did.

Well, I’m not saying the quiz was great.

I’m saying you guys were great.

You guys were awesome.

Thank you, John.

Really appreciate it.

We’ll talk to you next week.

Give our best to the family.

Thanks, guys.

You too.

Talk to you next week.

Take care.

Puzzle with us about language, any aspect whatsoever.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673,

or send your thoughts about language to words@waywordradio.org.