Q as in Cuba

[ESquared]

I once had a boss who liked to occasionally say, "Q as in Cuba."

Let's work up the whole alphabet, choosing common and interesting words. Here are a few... we can probably come up with some better ones.

A - edelweiss
G - jeepers
L - element
M - empirical
N - entropy
O - aubergine

I think it's key to say the whole name of the letter, and not just get the sound in there. For example, I thought of "J as in gerbil" but gerbil starts with /jer/, not /jay/. But maybe there will be a few letters that we can't think of these words for and we'll have to just be content with the sound.

 

[strongm]

C - seaside
F - effort
I - eye
K - cave
R - artist
S - espradrille
U - youth
Y - wise-up

 

[tsdragon]

I -eye

That's really more like a tautology, so I don't think that one counts. How about:
I - Aisle

Y - wise-up

I find that one cumbersome. How about:
Y - wiseguy
I think it flows better, and is alliterative besides.

The only easy one left is:

X as in ecstatic



Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[PaulTEG]

F as in phaq ?
Previously Horribly Answered Questions - as in WTF is that?
no that's probably pushing it
--Paul

cigless ...

 

[ggauthier]

In a similar vein, I sometimes say: "p as in psychics" or "k as in knee"

on Johnny Carson's show he had a sketch character named Floyd R Turbo, When asked what the 'R' stood for, he answered Arthur.

gg

 

[chipperMDW]

Z as in xenophobe.

Y - wiseguy
I think it flows better, and is alliterative besides

I think alliteration only applies to initial sounds, and usually consonants. Looks like it's assonant, to me. That should be in the "Butt of the Joke" thread...

 

[tsdragon]

I think alliteration only applies to initial sounds, and usually consonants. Looks like it's assonant, to me.

I thought that alliteration only applied to consonants (surpried I remember that much from Jr. High English, my teacher would be proud), but since I couldn't think of the proper form of "assonance" to fit into the sentence, I decided to leave it like that and see if anyone said anything. Thanks for the word "assonant".


Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[BocaBurger]

S as is psychology.
A as in eight
C as in Bruce/
D as in knowledge.
E as in New.
F as in enough.
G as in sign.
H as in herb (depends on whose English you use).
I as in boil
J
K
L as in LLama.
M
N
O as in Oy?
P as in psychotic
Q
R as in Harvard (Bostonian)
S as in Cymbol.
T as in
U as in
V
W
X
Y as in wise.
Z as in

Shelly Berman used to have a comedy routine based on this.




BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[MakeItSo]

A as in aisle
B as in beehive
C as in seaport
D as in determined
E as in eagle
F as in efficient
G as in Jesus
H as in 'ey Joe!
I as in eyeball
J as in jaywalking
K as in Cayman
L as in ellipsis
M as in Eminem
N as in enormous
O as in oval
P as in peacock
Q as in curious
R as in Arroyo
S as in Estonia
T as in teatime
U as in you know what
V as in veer
W as in double me (Ouch!)
X as in ecstatic
Y as in why not?
Z as in zero



[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - &quot;Mahatma&quot; Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[strongm]

Er.given the spirit of this I'd have to argue that the following don't work:

B as in beehive
D as in determined
E as in eagle
J as in jaywalking
O as in oval
P as in peacock
T as in teatime
V as in veer
W as in double me (Ouch!)
Z as in zero

 

[MakeItSo]

strongm Given ESquared's explanation at the beginning, these work well! What's your counter argument? I don't get it.


[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[strongm]

>these work well!

Mainly because the words I've identified in your examples do actually start with the letter in question*. The whole point is to get the sound but with a counterintuitive spelling and definitely not with the letter in question actually being the first letter of the word

* Apart from double me ...

 

[MakeItSo]

D'uh! Thanks strongm. That's why it was so easy...

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[ESquared]

My apologies. I see that I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I guess I thought it would be apparent from &quot;Q as in Cuba&quot; which, of course, doesn't work (there is no letter Q in Cuba, only the sound of Q).

For what it's worth, the military/official list is

alpha beta charlie delta echo foxtrot golf hotel indigo juliet kilo lima mike november oscar papa quebec romeo sierra tango uniform victor whiskey x-ray yankee zulu

And a recap of the valid suggestions so far, with some new ones from me. I've ignored entries which 1) start with the letter, 2) don't start with the sound of the letter. Where there is more than one suggestion, I've put my preferred one first. In general, I prefer tangible objects over intangibles, but not necessarily. I also prefer words where the letter name is its own syllable, separate from the rest of the sounds, as in edelweiss over eight. I also prefer shorter and more common words over longer or uncommon words.

Some of these may be impossible in any language, like H and W. Some may be very difficult in English, like B, D, and P.

I've only included that words don't start with the sound of the name of the letter where I can't think of one, so I had to be content with just the sound of the letter. And I've had to turn to other languages for some. These are questionable.

A - edelweiss (German), eight, épée (French)
B -
C - seahorse, seaside, seaport
D -
E - imam, irritate (well... almost), i griega (Spanish), Ixtacihuatl, Izhevsk
F - effort
G - jesus, jihad, jeepers
H -
I - eyeball, aisle, eye
J - gerund (almost)
K - caper, Cayman (Caiman), cave
L - element, elephant
M - ember, empire, empirical
N - entropy
O - aubergine, autre (French), aura (almost)
P -
Q - Cuba
R - artifact, artist
S - essay, esquire, eskimo, escrow, escalator, espadrille (spelling corrected)
T - ptarmigan (almost), pterodactyl (almost)
U - Yugo, youth, yuletide, Yugoslavia, Yukon
V - wiedersehen (German)
W -
X - ecstasy, ecstatic
Y - wire, wino, whiner, wife, Waikiki, white, wise, wiseguy, wise-up, Weimariner
Z - xenon, xenophobe, Xerox

 

[MakeItSo]

B - vaya con dios (almost, when correctly pronounced)

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[chipperMDW]

H - Ajax


Also, there's a bone called an aitchbone, but I think "aitch" is supposed to be an intentional spelling of the letter, so it might not count.

 

[nsw155]

E - as in Yvonne ?

 

[SilentAiche]

ESquared,

[green]Personally[/green], I think another example for the letter I would be

[blue]Hydrometer[/blue]

But, maybe that's just me and my family...

Tim

(P.S. - if this makes no sense, see the "What Does Your Handle Mean?" thread, and then take an aspirin.)



[blue]_____________________________________________________
If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.
If you are outside of Raleigh, raise your hand and say[/blue] [red]Ooh! Ooh![/red]

 

[ESquared]

you must say things funny

 

[SilentAiche]

[green]Wy[/green], yes, E2,

We say many [blue]tings[/blue] funny. Some more tan oters.

Tim

[blue]_____________________________________________________
If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.
If you are outside of Raleigh, raise your hand and say[/blue] [red]Ooh! Ooh![/red]