Our Puzzle Master John Chaneski has a game that should last through your longest road trip. It’s a variation of “20 Questions” called “Animal, Mineral or Vegetable.” He gives you a word and you have to find the animal, mineral or vegetable embedded in it. For example, which of those three things is contained in the word soaking? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Twenty Questions”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined once again by John Chaneski.
He’s our quiz guy.
John, you got some quizzes?
John, hi.
I think you’ll like this.
This one’s called Animal, Mineral, or Vegetable.
I’m going to give you some words.
Hidden within each one is an animal, a mineral, or a vegetable.
For example, the word soaking has the word, can you guess what it has in it?
Soaking.
Soaking.
Oak.
Oak, that’s right.
And 20 questions, we classify that as a vegetable.
Now, I know soaking also has the word king in it, and a king is a human, which is an animal.
But, you know, we’re not going to go that way.
We’re just looking for animal animals.
Okay.
So if you get an answer, first shout out which category it falls into, and then we’ll see if you’re right.
Okay.
Okay.
Here’s the first.
Prosecutor.
Prosecutor.
You know I have to write these down, right?
Sure.
I would say mineral.
No.
Well, what mineral do you think is in there?
Tor.
T-O-R.
It’s a kind of hill.
That’s pretty good.
I’m a little more specific than that.
Let’s see.
Martha, what about you?
Oh, I see vegetable.
Vegetable.
What is it?
Rose.
A rose.
Very good.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
How about this one?
Millionaire.
Millionaire.
Animal, lion.
Oh, very good.
Very good.
Say again.
What animal did you find there?
A lion.
A lion, right in the middle of the millionaire.
Very good.
How about infernal?
Infernal.
This infernal machine.
Vegetable, of course.
Vegetable, Martha?
What you got?
Of course, a fern.
Fern is right.
Very good.
Designated.
Designated.
Oh, animal.
Please pick one.
Okay, what animal do you have?
What animal is it?
G-N-A-T.
G-N-A-T is correct.
Very good.
How about reappearance?
Perseverance.
Oh, vegetable.
Yes.
Pear.
Pear is correct.
How about clementine?
Well, mineral, if you count tin.
Yes, why wouldn’t you count tin?
Oh, wonderful mineral.
I’m looking for the really complicated thing.
I know, me too.
I’m thinking Pope Clementine.
A classic puzzler’s dodge where they make it really simple instead of really hard.
How about, let’s see which one this falls into.
Let’s try chaperones.
Hiperones.
Hiperones.
Oh, animal.
Ape.
Yes, that’s exactly right.
Ape.
There is an ape.
Or eviparone.
In your chaperones.
Finally, let’s try the word thousandfold.
Oh, I like that word anyway.
Thousandfold.
Mineral.
What is it?
Sand.
Sand.
Oh, wow.
Right in the middle of your thousandfold.
Very good, guys.
This is tricky.
Nice work.
I like this one.
This is a good one.
You got to bring this one back sometime, John.
Yes, I definitely will.
All right.
Super duper.
Thanks, John.
Thanks, Grant.
Thanks, Martha.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
And if you have a question about language, wordplay, grammar, slang, call us 877-929-9673.
soaking: i see “oak”
There is a variation of the 20 qs. A new category can be added, called “processes”. For example, combustion, transpiration.
You can add machines, entities in the universe, and many other categories.