Word trivia: Plural words made singular by adding "y". 6

[SantaMufasa]

This contest is to identify plural words that you make singular by adding the letter "y".

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

@ 23:59 (29Nov04) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 16:59 (29Nov04) Mountain Time

 

[cLFlaVA]

[white]gyps : gypsy[/white]

*cLFlaVA
----------------------------
[tt]insert funny quotation here.[/tt]

 

[ESquared]

[white]drops dropsy
pops popsy
mops mopsy
gips gipsy
whims whimsy
tans tansy
pans pansy
minstrels minstrelsy
pals palsy
dais daisy
heres heresy
toots tootsy
pats patsy[/white]

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[ESquared]

I have some comments about some submissions.

The first word has to be a noun. All, when used as a noun, is singular. When not used as a noun, it has no number. It is similar to family, which is singular, even though it can consist of many members: the plural is families.

The second word has to be a noun. For example, bulky doesn't count because it is an adjective, thus has no number: it is neither singular nor plural.

Oh, and oops... some of the pairs in my post were already listed by other people. My apologies! Although, my last post was totally complete and I simply forgot to click submit for a few hours, so it *should* have been before cLFlaVA's last two posts.

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[SantaMufasa]

Wow ! Lots of good efforts on this one:

cLFlaVa: "all" -> "ally"...Excellent...Have a star.

DrJavaJoe: "bulk" -> "bulky"...noun -> adjective...sorry.

CajunCenturion: "geodes" -> "geodesy"...Wow!, cool!...Have a star.
CajunCenturion: "drops" -> "dropsy"...Excellent...Star worthy
CajunCenturion: "fora" -> "foray"...Well done...Star-struck

DrJavaJoe: "tips" -> "tipsy"...noun -> adjective, but your reward is how you got "tipsy" in the first place

cLFlaVa: "pans" -> "pansy"...Terrific...Starry
cLFlaVa: "gyps" -> "gypsy"...There's just no stopping you...again, stellar.

Esquared: What a list !!! Let's analyse:
"drops" -> "dropsy"...star-worthy
"pops" -> "popsy"...as a nickname, we'll take it
"mops" -> "mopsy"...Peter Rabbit's sibling...good one
"gips" -> "gipsy"...Can't define "gips"/"gipsy" works as British variant of "gypsy"
"whims" -> "whimsy"...well done
"tans" -> "tansy"...Yessiree !
"pans" -> "pansy"...Good, but cLFlaVa won the race
"minstrels" -> "minstrelsy"...Yep, a body of minstrels
"pals" -> "palsy" ->...Excellent !
"dais" -> "daisy"...Dodgy since "dais" truly is singular, but we'll take it since British users consider a singular word plural if it represents a plurality, such as "The dais are giving a standing ovation."
"heres" -> "heresy"...Clever
"toots" -> "tootsy"...Qualifies due to proper name
"pats" -> "patsy"...Qualifies due to proper name
(What a great run, Esquared !!!)

Esquared: Your earlier analysis of "ours" -> "yours" is very well taken, but if one can build a case for "ours" being plural and "yours" being singular (as we can), then it qualifies, thus the star.

Also, Esquared, excellent confirmation of "The Rules of the Game". Thanks for that.

You all (plural in intent) are absolutely awesome !!! You (plural) have really excelled at this.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

@ 18:23 (01Dec04) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 11:23 (01Dec04) Mountain Time

 

[ESquared]

Ooh! By my own rules I would have ot reject dais... it slipped by.

Thanks for participating in this forum, Mufasa aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA.

Here's the query I used to get a list of 2226 candidate words, which I scanned to find my answers:

SELECT
   D.Word,
   S.Sound,
   WordCnt
FROM Dictionary D
INNER JOIN (
   select
      Sound = soundex(word)
         + Soundex(substring(word,5,4))
         + Soundex(substring(word,9,4))
         + Soundex(substring(word,13,4)),
      WordCnt = Count(*),
      WordLength
   from dictionary
   where wordlength < = 16
   group by
      Soundex(word)
         + Soundex(substring(word,5,4))
         + Soundex(substring(word,9,4))
         + Soundex(substring(word,13,4)),
      WordLength
   having count(*) >= 2
) S on soundex(d.word)
   + Soundex(substring(d.word,5,4))
   + Soundex(substring(d.word,9,4))
   + Soundex(substring(d.word,13,4)) = S.Sound
and abs(D.wordlength - S.WordLength) <=1
ORDER BY
   WordCnt Desc,
   S.Sound,
   D.Word

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[Lothario]

Thats awesome ESquared!!!

Have a star...

-L