It just SPRINGS to mind!

Where do the names for the seasons come from?

Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall?), Winter. Click on the link and read all about it!

Je suis le meilleur! says New Zealand Scrabble champ

Winner of French Scrabble does not speak French!

Read the article in link above and you will see that it may be that it is the MATHS spies, not the WORD spies, who will be best at Scrabble!

Pound the daylights out of it! from Betty Autumn's mom

Hello Word Snoop. 

This is Betty Autumn's mom from Vermont, USA. We stumbled into some serious word snooping today at a museum of life in New England in the 1800's (The Shelburne Museum). 

A favorite building is the working blacksmith shop, complete with the grubby blacksmith, his bellows, tools, and wooden bucket of water in which to dunk the red-hot metal to cool. I asked him, "In carpentry, there is a popular saying, 'Measure twice, cut once.' is there any parallel sayings in the blacksmith shop? "Yes," he said, "There are lots: Strike while the iron's hot. Don't have too many irons in the fire, and Pound the daylights out of it." 

That last one was my favorite. It refers to using a tool called a mandrel to round out a metal ring. To know where to strike to get it perfectly round, you "Pound the daylights out of it." In other words, you pound wherever you can see between the ring and the tool. So fun. 

From Betty Autumn's mom

Dear Betty Autumn's mom,

What a wonderful post! thank you so much.  All fascinating - and a I learned a new word, "mandrel". Here is a photo of one, snoops and spies. (The thing in the middle).


 

I became so interested I started snooping around and found this site, with proverbs from blacksmiths.  One I really like is  "Blacksmith's children are not afraid of sparks". And what a marvelous museum that looks - watch out for it, spies and snoops, if you are ever in New England, USA. 

Always a delight to be in touch, keep banging that anvil! 

your pal, The Word Snoop (aka The Word Spy)

A dangerous comma ...

Dear Spies,

Be careful with your commas or you might end out in court, as you will read in the link here. 

Beef with Coles over missing comma

Which I'm sure brings to mind to my fellow word spies the famous words of the Irish playwright, novelist and poet, Oscar Wilde!

And as for apostrophes...

Yours,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
(nervously)

The, 'Word, Spy'

Esperanto-muzeo!

Dear Spies,

If you've read "The Return of the Word Spy", you will have read all about the invented language Esperanto. Well, did you know there is even a museum of Esperanto in Vienna, Austria?

Vidi vin tie! Via amiko, La Vorto Spiono

https://www.onb.ac.at/en/museums/esperanto-museum/the-esperanto-museum/about-the-esperanto-museum/

I can't quite read your writing...

Dear  Spies,

Just so you know it's not only children who have to learn to improve their handwriting! (And between you and me, the Word Spy has got a long way to go...)

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/handwriting-101-the-easy-ways-to-improve-your-scrawl-20170630-gx21j1.html

Please don't be shocked! from Charlotte

Dear Word Spy,

I was reading a freaky fact book and found the contents page. One particular chapter I came across was the weird words. There, I finally stumbled upon my favourite word!

Please don't be shocked (it is the longest word in the English language):

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

(pronounced noo-mono-ultra-micro-scopic-silico-volcano-conio-sis)

Dear Charlotte,

Well I am SHOCKED!  And if you spies are shocked too, have a look at this video to hear someone saying it:

 And wait, here's a song all about it!  Which also tells you what it actually means...

Wonderful spying, Charlotte - one might even say:

Yours, still humming, The Word Spy

Learn to SPEAK Latin camp? Ita vero!

Dear Spies,

I alas am too old for this (and also I don't live in the USA) - but what a truly wonderful idea. An immersion camp for high school Latin students where you actually learn to SPEAK the language,not just read it!  http://www.latinperdiem.com/tusculum17/ 

Camp activities will include:

1. Reading and discussing in Latin a wide variety of authors from all eras of the language
2. Sharing meals, games, athletics, and campfires all in Latin
3. Recitations, competitions, dramatic interpretations, and lots of hilarity in Latin
4. The formation of abiding, literary friendships with other young people your own age who are learning Latin and loving the humanities

Sigh. O quam felices sunt illos iuvenes!!!  (Visne mihi dare salem?)

yours, jealously, 

Explorator Verborum

"Greek like that will surely come my way, hey hey hey hey"

Dear Spies,

You have to hand it to these students of Koine Greek (Greek that was spoken from about 300 BC -300 AD) - they will do anything to learn their verbs! Singing, dancing, climbing trees, making shapes of letters with their bodies - you have to see it to believe it.

No entiendo, said the parrot

Dear me!  I think this might be an avian word spy....

British parrot missing for four years returns speaking Spanish British owner reunited with lost bird only to find he doesn't speak English any more

Dictation, dictation, dictation!

Dear Spies,

Well, the things people used to get up to for fun ...

In 1857 the French writer Prosper Merrimé was asked to produce a REALLY hard dictation to entertain the French court. And it really was hard!

So hard that the emperor Napoleon III made 75 mistakes, his wife Eugenie made 62 mistakes (she was Spanish after all),the writer Alexandre Dumas made 25 mistakes- and the Austrian ambassador Metternich only made THREE mistakes! (Gold star for him I think.)  If you click on the video, you can hear the dictation read out loud. And underneath the words are written out in French, followed by a translation in English. You will see it is quite a crazy story!

"Pour parler sans ambiguïté, ce dîner à Sainte-Adresse, près du Havre, malgré les effluves embaumés de la mer, malgré les vins de très bons crus, les cuisseaux de veau et les cuissots de chevreuil prodigués par l'amphitryon, fut un vrai guêpier. 
Quelles que soient et quelqu'exiguës qu'aient pu paraître, à côté de la somme due, les arrhes qu'étaient censés avoir données la douairière et le marguillier, il était infâme d'en vouloir pour cela à ces fusiliers jumeaux et mal bâtis et de leur infliger une raclée alors qu'ils ne songeaient qu'à prendre des rafraîchissements avec leurs coreligionnaires. Quoi qu'il en soit, c'est bien à tort que la douairière, par un contresens exorbitant, s'est laissé entraîner à prendre un râteau et qu'elle s'est crue obligée de frapper l'exigeant marguillier sur son omoplate vieillie. Deux alvéoles furent brisés, une dysenterie se déclara, suivie d'une phtisie. — Par saint Martin, quelle hémorragie, s'écria ce bélître ! À cet événement, saisissant son goupillon, ridicule excédent de bagage, il la poursuivit dans l'église tout entière."

"To speak plainly, this dinner at Sainte-Adresse, near the Havre, - despite the balmy scents of the sea, despite the very good vintage wines, the veal thighs and the rump of venison provided by the host - was a real hornet’s nest. 
Whatever may or may not have been the case, in comparison with the money owed, the down payment which the dowager and the church warden were supposed to have given, it was vile to blame it on this pair of puny fusiliers, and to inflict on them a beating when they were thinking of nothing more than taking some refreshments with their coreligionists. Whatever the case may be, it was quite wrong that the dowager, through an outrageous misunderstanding, was led to seize a rake and hit the churchwarden on his elderly shoulder blade. Two lungs were smashed, dysentery broke out, followed by tuberculosis. “By Saint Martin, what a haemorrhage!” exclaimed this good-for-nothing. Upon which, seizing his bottlebrush, a ridiculous and excessive contraption, he chased her through the entire church."

More soon on the subject of dictation, my spies.

Yours, dictatorially, the Word Spy

Алфавит! (I mean ALPHABET!)

Dear Spies,

Well if you've mastered the Greek alphabet through a cow bell song (see last post) now you can move onto the Russian alphabet with the help of another very catchy tune!

And to hear the same tune sung in a different language altogether - who can tell me what it is? 

I just can't stop singing

yours, with a tralala - 

The  Слово  шпион

Alpha beta gamma delta ep-si-lon - la la la!

Dear Spies,

Have you ever wanted to learn the ancient Greek alphabet? Here's a video to help you - complete with cow bell!

Happy singing! from ...

η λέξη κατάσκοπος

How to speak to your rabbit

Dear Spies, 

Ever wondered what language rabbits speak?

The writer, Richard Adams, who wrote the bestselling novel of rabbit life, "Watership Down"  had a few ideas about what rabbits might have to say. He called the language "Lapine." You can read some of the words here:

http://www.cs.ulm.edu/~pdw/rabbit/lapine.html

Of course, if you've ever spent any time with a rabbit, you will have noticed they are rather silent animals. But I'm sure they understand each other!

Till next time, frithath!

The Word Spy

I've got an apple to peel with you...

Dear Spies, 

In the link below there is a list of expressions from languages and countries around the work, using different foods to express all sorts of different things.  

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/series/french-idioms/around-the-world-food-expressions/


I wonder if you know any other expressions using food that you could add to the list?

Yours, fruitily,

The Word Spy

Rebus code?? from Sara

Hi Word Spy, 

I'm very stuck on one of the codes in your first book the word spy. chapter six with the Rebus codes!!

from Sara

Hello Sara, 

Sorry you are stuck. Hmm. Let's see. 

For the   U  R  A  try saying the letters out loud and listen to what words they sound like.

And then there's a list of the word "secret" and the little arrow is pointing to the top one. 

Can you work it out now?

Let me know if you are still having trouble!

BTW I bet U R A great word spy!

yours every playfully, the Word Spy

Guinea pig latin? from a fellow word spy

Dear Word Spy,

I-ay ove-lay ig-pay atin-lay! 

However, I have one desperate cry for help. 

How do you speak guinea pig latin????????????? 

From a fellow word spy

Ear-diggle Ellow-figgle ord-wiggle py-spiggle!

Thank you for your message! ah, guinea pig latin - truly a wonderful and strange form of communication, common amongst CERTAIN types of guinea pigs. Have you read a book called The Crytpic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno and Alberta: The Perplexing Pineapple?  The secrets of guinea pig latin are explained inside ...

But in the meantime, I-iggle et-biggle ou-yiggle an-ciggle ork-wiggle it-iggle out-iggle or-figgle ourself-yiggle.....

Yours squeakingly,

The Word Spy

Dear Word Spies,

I wonder if you can work out the titles of  books using these emoji puzzles at this link:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jarrylee/the-old-man-and-the-emoji?utm_term=.hcYwALRpl#.eq3oqnyX0

I think some of them work better than others but they are all fun! I wonder - maybe you can make up some yourself? I would love to see them if you do. 

Yours pictorially, symbolically and very sincerely, the Word Spy



PS  The two on this page are:

The Sound and the Fury (by William Faulkner)
Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck)

shiaHn pohem! from Harriffan

Attention Word Spies  - an amazing missive from Harrifan.....


Ursula Dubosarsky waq,

shiaHn pohem yiu, traj!

wir drak.

yupa,

Harriffan Conshertini, kijn wozo (|||-) fak

English Translation:

Dear Ursula Dubosarsky,

Thank you for the previous praise!

Hear from you soon.

Signed,

Harriffan Conshertini, age 14

Invented language for subterranean aliens... from Harri

Dear Word Spy,

I was reading your Word Spy books, and was inspired by the sections on invented languages.

I have a few characters that I sometimes write stories for, and I'm into Klingon, so here it is so far!

(N.B. this language is spoken by aliens from subterranean cities on the dwarf planet Eris)

Know thyself, and pokata!
- Harriffan Conshertini

Ro-noni Language

Hello = kata

Goodbye = pokata

Please = ruwiH

Go! = wa-ya!

Eris = ro-no

Home = no

World = ro

Prefix that changes a word’s meaning to its opposite = po-

Call the police! = faHn ui yon! (Lit. summon nearby patrol officers!)

Call = yon

Patol Officers = faHn

Near, close, nearby = ui

Suffix that changes a word to a plural = -n

Earth = ro-apel

Apple (company) = apel

Zero, nothing, none = click of the tongue

One = to

Two = jo

Three = yo

Four = zo

Five = po

Six = do

Seven = cho

Eight = ko

Nine = lo

Ten = wo

Eleven = ho

20 = jowo

30 = yowo

40 = zowo

50 = powo

60 = dowo

70 = chowo

80 = kowo

90 = lowo

100 = wowo

200 = ja

300 = ya

Where is = paHn

Bathroom = ka-pe

Where is the bathroom? = ka-pe ui paHn? (Lit. where is a  nearby bathroom?)

Daughter = ma’ee

Dysnomia (moon of Eris) = ma’eena ro-no (Lit. daughter of home-world)

Suffix that indicates possession = -na

Son – ko’po (if another moon of Eris is ever discovered, it will be called ko’po ro-no (son of home-world)

If there is an apostrophe in the middle of a word, as in ko’po, if there is an o at the end, it is pronounced like off. If there is no o at the end, it is just to help you differentiate the sounds of Ro-noni Language

Hello = kata

Goodbye = pokata

Please = ruwiH

Go! = wa-ya!

Eris = ro-no

Home = no

World = ro

Prefix that changes a word’s meaning to its opposite = po-

Call the police! = faHn ui yon! (Lit. summon nearby patrol officers!)

Call = yon

Patol Officers = faHn

Near, close, nearby = ui

Suffix that changes a word to a plural = -n

Earth = ro-apel

Apple (company) = apel

Zero, nothing, none = click of the tongue

One = to

Two = jo

Three = yo

Four = zo

Five = po

Six = do

Seven = cho

Eight = ko

Nine = lo

Ten = wo

Eleven = ho

20 = jowo

30 = yowo

40 = zowo

50 = powo

60 = dowo

70 = chowo

80 = kowo

90 = lowo

100 = wowo

200 = ja

300 = ya

Where is = paHn

Bathroom = ka-pe

Where is the bathroom? = ka-pe ui paHn? (Lit. where is a  nearby bathroom?)

Daughter = ma’ee

Dysnomia (moon of Eris) = ma’eena ro-no (Lit. daughter of home-world)

Suffix that indicates possession = -na

Son – ko’po (if another moon of Eris is ever discovered, it will be called ko’po ro-no (son of home-world)

If there is an apostrophe in the middle of a word, as in ko’po, if there is an o at the end, it is pronounced like off. If there is no o at the end, it is just to help you differentiate the sounds of the word.

 KATA HARRI,

This is wonderful - in fact WOWO times wonderful!!!!!

I especially love (for some reason) the way zero is a click of the tongue. And I love the use of the apostrophe - and the prefixes and suffixes. This is truly the production of a brilliant Word Spy....

Wa-ya Harri! More ruwiH!!!!

Pokata till next time,

The Word Spy

A cry for help! from a fellow word snoop

Dear Word Snoop,


Chapter 4 is a little hard. I just can't get REAE in the lipogram. The rest looks like it is AND DASTARLY CODES. I could really use some help on this,snooping is exactly what I love to do! But this one is a trickster. I love your book so far, and I hope I can get some help.

Thank you so much,
Your fellow word snoop
Post Scriptum (PS): I love your book so much, I hope there's a second one! 

(Post) Post Scriptum, (get it?) ;)
What is your favorite type of punctuation? 


Dear Fellow Word Snoop, (ah that makes me happy to write those words!)

So glad to hear from you. And to hear that you have enjoyed the book.

NOW  on that code...

Remember it's at the end of a chapter that deals with LIPOGRAMS - you know, when you leave a letter out of a word, or a sentence (or even a whole book!)

Have a look at the sentence here. I have turned it into a LIPOGRAM on P  (which means I have left out the letter P):

Remember it's at the end of a chater that deals with LIOGRAMS

And now look at the same sentence with the letter E left out:

Rmmbr it's at th nd of a chaptr that dals with LIPOGRAMS.

So now, going back to the code, to solve it you have to work out which letter of the alphabet has been left out. (I have put some little lines in to show you where the missing letters should be.) 

             -REA-E-    AN-   - ASTER-LY CO-ES


A good way to start to work out a lipogram code is just to go through the alphabet. Try putting an A in the place of the missing letters of the first word:  

                         AREAAEA 

Hmm. That's not a word. Let's try B: 

                         BREABEB

Not a word either... But keep going like that - it won't take you long to work it out. Let me know how you go!!

Till next time, 

You-  f-iend, the Wo-d Snoop

POST SCRIPTUM  There is a second book - and even a third. The second one is called "The Return of the Word Spy" and the third one is called  "The Word Spy's Activity Book"

POST POST SCRIPTUM  Hmm I wonder if you can work out my favourite punctuation mark??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A cry for help! from Anonymous

Dear Word Spy,

In "The Return of the Word Spy"I know about the turtle and the horse but I can't find out what the rebus means. HELP!!!! please tell me how to find it out!

I have tried finding out what it might mean but I Keep thinking that it is a fan moth but when I put that in it doesn't work right.

Thankyou,

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for your message! I'm sorry you've been having trouble with the rebus. Let's see if I can help.

In a rebus puzzle, pictures are used instead of some letters.  So already you are on the way to solving it - as you said, it is a picture of a fan. 

But look at what comes just before the picture of the fan -  the letter K and then the letter F crossed out. That means you take off the letter F from the word fan, and replace the letter K.  So instead of FAN you have - that's right, KAN!

That's the beginning of the word. Then you have the letters GAR. So that bit is easy. That's the middle of the word. 

Then you have another picture, this time of the MOON, with the letter M and N crossed out. So the letters that finish the word are OO.

Hmm, I bet your brain is really hopping now!

yours, marsupially, The Word Spy

                             
 
                                 

Hats off!

Well my spies, I don't know if you speak (or write!) French, but the Academie Francaise, who are in charge of this sort of thing in France, have decided that some of the little signs you put above letters when you write them are to be SUPPRESSED!!!!  read more at the link below.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/french-spelling-reforme-orthographe-je-suis-circonflexe-1.3433227

Latin and Greek boost reading and maths skills!

 (The Times) 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4650548.ece

(it's a cafe)

                      (spotted in Paris by the Word Spy)

@#&(*&)*&#)@(#*&!*#!&^*????????

Dear word spies,

Look at this wonderful ancient writing! It is on the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.The writing is hieroglyphs, the writing of the ancient Egyptians. The obelisk is about 3000 years old and used to stand at the temple of Luxor in Egypt. 

What does it say? Sadly, the Word Spy only attended ONE hieroglyphs class when she was at university. Sigh... a lost opportunity. But perhaps one day YOU will learn how to read hieroglyphs and be able to translate it for the rest of us. 

(Apparently it says lots of things about how marvelous the Pharaoh, Ramses II, was.) 

"A E I O U" tralalalalalalalal!!!!

The Song of the Vowels restaurant in Paris. Named after the French poet Arthur Rimbaud's poem - click here to read it!

I've finally done it!! from James H

Dear Word Spy,

After a couple of years I finally decided to figure out what the codes, in your first book, mean. It took me a little while to get them and I even had to do some spying around to figure it out and i got it! The sentence is;

(SUPPRESSED BY THE WORD SPY MEANWHILE SO THAT OTHER WORD SPIES CAN WORK IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES, BUT JAMES YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!)

 I've also read your second book and now it is time to crack its codes as well.

Lots of thanks for teaching me so much about words, it has helped me in my English classes a bit. (I even needed to study this book for school!)

Well I better get back to my spying.

James H

Dear James,

This is such a great message for me to receive!  full of great news from one of my spies.  So glad you've enjoyed the book and what's more CRACKED THE CODE. (I must get to work on another code for you - watch this space - well, this blog)

Keep on spying....

from our-yay  impressed-ay al-pay,

Why Stop Red

(why indeed?)

An animal - or...? from Unknown

Gd'day Word Spy,I just wanted to ask for a little help in solving the rebus in your second book.Apart from knowing that it's an animal, I'm clueless. 

from Unknown


Dear Unknown,

(Good to know someone else whose name begins with U!)

Thanks for your message - I'm on the road but more soon!

yours, the (Unknowing) Word Spy

Banana or Banana? (or let's settle for a mango!)

The quirks of pronunciation

A clean sweep? especially for French-speaking Word Spies

Here's a French rebus spotted in a market at the Avenue du President Wilson that's a bit easier!