Phrase Phase: F. W.

How many two-word phrases that follow the pattern F__  W__ can you think of? I started with “Ferris wheel,” and I have about eight more as of this morning. I’ll publish my list later this week, and I hope to have at least 30 phrases by then.

To count, answers must be commonly-known English phrases, not just two words that sound good together like, say, “frosty winter.” In order to limit the list, please don’t repeat any words. So, if you’ve used Ferris wheel, you can’t use the word wheel again (or Ferris, but you probably weren’t going to do that anyway).

Have a great week, and I’ll check in again on Thursday or Friday.

Foodie Phrase Phase: G. __

I was considering using phrases with the pattern G__  A__ as this week’s challenge, and then I thought of phrases for G__  B__ and G__  C__ and realized that all three phrases had to do with food.

So here’s the challenge: Can you come up with 26 common, two-word phrases, such that the first word in each phrase starts with a G and the second word starts with every letter of the alphabet AND such that each two-word phrase has to do with food? As usual, please don’t repeat any of the words (in this case, don’t repeat any of the words that start with G). Also, only use phrases that are commonly known and spoken–two words that sound good together won’t cut it.

I’m not sure how close I will get; I’m sure a few of those letters will be difficult to impossible. But, I will post what I come up with on Thursday, or Friday at the latest.

 

Phrase Phase: S. N.

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted here. I was away for 10 days over the holidays, and then I got out of the habit, I guess. But I miss the mini word-based challenges, and I will continue to take pictures of smiles and post them (and I am working on some other projects with them as well). So, I hope to not take two or three-week breaks very often.

Today’s puzzle: How many phrases can you think of that follow the pattern S___  N___? Phrases must be commonly used, two-word English phrases, not just two words that sound good together. Also, to keep the list shorter, please don’t repeat any words. So, if you use “silent night,” you may not use the word silent or the word night in another phrase.

I have four phrases that I’ve thought of just as I’m typing this, so I think the list will end up being fairly long. I’ll hope to post around 25 by Thursday.

Happy 2012!

Phrase Phase: G. S.

We drove past a pull-off on a forested highway this past weekend that said something like “Long Lake G. S.” and we wondered what the G. S. stood for. I came up with a few answers that I’m sure were not right, and realized I should use the question as this week’s challenge.

How many two-word phrases can you think of that follow the pattern G__  S__ ? Answers should be commonly used phrases, not just two words that sound good together. In order to limit the answers, please only use each word one time. So, if you decide to use the phrase “gold standard,” you may not use the word gold or the word standard in another phrase.

I’ll post my list on Wednesday or Thursday, and I hope to have 25 or so phrases.

Have a great week!

Constant Consonants: FLD

It has been a while since I’ve posed one of these puzzles: How many English words can you think of that use the consonants F, L, and D, in that order, and no others? You may add vowels wherever you like, but no other consonants. You may repeat an F, L, or D, only if there are no vowels between the repeated letter. For a more complete set of rules, see the link at the upper right.

I will post my answers on Thursday, and I hope to have 12-15 words.

Have a great week!

Answers: H.K. Phrases

Here are the 14 phrases I found that fit the pattern h__  k__ :

Hand knit, hard knocks, Hare Krishna, Harman Kardon, heaven knows, hangman’s knot, Hello Kitty, Hell’s Kitchen, Hershey’s kiss, high king, Hindu Kush, Hong Kong, human kindness, and hunting knife.

Some near misses include: hara-kiri (actually a one-word hyphenated phrase), hash key, Heartbreak Kid (a Ben Stiller movie but not a common phrase), and hotel key (I don’t think it counts as a phrase). Also, hoochie coochie is most often an h__  c__ phrase.

Cheers!

Phrase Phase: H. K.

While I was thinking of people with the initials H. K. last week, I also thought of a few phrases with that pattern. So, this week’s challenge: How many common two-word phrases can you think of that follow the pattern H__  K__ ? Note: In order to count, you must find commonly-used phrases, not just two words that sound like they work together (like “hospital kitchen,” even though I’m sure there are such things). Also, don’t repeat any word more than once. So, if you use the word “hot” in one phrase, you may not use it again.

I’ll post my answers Wednesday or Thursday, and I hope to have 12 to 18 phrases.

Have a great week!

Phrase Phase: I.W.

I thought I would try a more obscure pair of letters for this week’s challenge, but strangely enough I have already thought of seven or eight possible answers… more than last week when I had more common letters.

Anyway, how many common two-word phrases can you think of that follow the pattern I__  W__ ? In order to count, phrases must be commonly used in everyday speech, not just two words that sound okay together. To make it a little more restrictive, please only use each word once. That is, if you want to use the phrase “ice water,” you may not use another phrase with the word ICE or another phrase with the word WATER.

I hope to have 15 or so phrases by Wednesday, when I’ll post my answer list.

Phrase Phase: F.T.

It’s time for another phrase challenge. How many two-word phrases can you think of that follow the pattern F__  T__ ? In order to keep the list semi-short, you may not repeat any one word in more than one phrase. So, if you use “full time,” you may not also use “full throttle” (or another phrase with the word “time”). Also, the phrases have to be commonly used as a phrase, not just two words that sound good together, like “frilly tuxedo.” Okay, maybe that isn’t the best example of a good-sounding phrase, but you know what I mean.

I think that I’ll have quite a long list (say, upwards of 30) by next Monday, when I’ll post my answers. As a side-challenge, I’m finding that several of my phrases have to do with travel. How many F__  T__ travel phrases can you list?

Happy almost-officially-summer!

Constant Consonants: FT and BL

Because I didn’t post a word puzzle last week, I’ll set up two today and post my answers on Monday or Tuesday next week. In honor of the playoffs, how many words can you think of that use only the consonants F and T, in that order, and no others? You may use vowels as often and wherever you like. For a full set of rules, see the link at the upper right.

As the second challenge, how many words can you think of that use only the consonants B and L? I suspect there will be quite a few more B L words, but I haven’t started making my lists, so I could be wrong.