Rules used so far:

Y often at end of word: used in DAISY and SLEEPY.

EE frequently occurs, used in SLEEPY.

Letters and letter combinations that often occur at the end of words: Y, ED, ING. Half of all words end with E T D S. E used in CHOKE.

If there are 3 consonants in a word, there are six permutations: for example, WXZ, WZX, XWZ, XZW, ZWX and ZXW. Used in CHOKE and SLEEPY; CHK and SLP.

If there are 4 consonants in a word, try consonant pairs such as LL or SH, if available. Most common consonant pairs: TH ND ST LL SS TT FF RR NN PP CC. Example: TH in FATHER.


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Posted July 31, 2013. If you see this at a later date, go to the archive and click on July 31 2013.
The cartoon shows two adult fish looking at a baby fish. The baby is in a hammock, but if you look closely, it is a net.

Caption: "The newborn fish slept in a ______"

First word: INYSH

Place the Y at the end, recognize the consonant pair SH, and come up with SHINY. S & N are circled.

Second word: REBIB. There are three consonants, but one is repeated. So the only permutations are:

RBB BRB & BBR. If you sound out BRB, it suggests BRIBE. B & E are circled, so we have:
SNBE for the caption.

Fourth word: NANTIF. ANT are already in order, and T is a frequent last letter. So we have (maybe) FIN ANT and permutation INFANT may suggest itself. I, A, and T are circled. So we have SNBEIAT for the caption. Where do babies sleep: in a BASSINET. Despite that being 8 letters, and the caption being 9 letters, let's cross out the letters we already have: BAS S INET. Now, a BASS is a fish, and on closer inspection, the fish is sleeping in a net, so it looks like the caption might be:

"BASS-IN-NET" and we need an S and an I.

Third word: STILNP with the first and fifth letters circled; the only possibilities being S TLP I N or
I TLP S N. If you use the video version and put S and N in either the first or fifth position, you will see that the word is SPLINT; S is first and N is fifth.

So, the solution is:

SHINY
BRIBE
SPLINT
INFANT

and the caption is "The newborn fish slept in a BASS-IN-NET." The caption has a double N, and is misspelled, this is typical of the word-play in Jumble.

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Additional rules:

Consonant pair SH.

If there are three consonants, and one is repeated, there are only 3 permutations, as in BBR.

The mathematical rule for this situation is 3! divided by 2!, which is 6/2, or 3.

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This jumble is from July 24 2013. The cartoon shows a drummer and a guitarist, the caption is: "Even though it was plugged in, the electric guitar without strings was ----" Look carefully at the cartoon, the connection between the guitar and the amplifier is very bold, and plugged in and electric are clues. Also, answers are always word-plays.

The words are:

HOCEK
SIDAY
PLESEY
TEFRAH

As always, if you can un-Jumble any word by inspection, do so!

HOCEK

Three consonants, six permutations: CHK CKH HCK HKC KCH KHC. Only CHK and KCH are pronouncable, CHK suggests CHOKE. Note that CHOKE ends with e, one of the most common end letters.

C & O & E are circled, so caption is COE _ _ _ _ _ _; 6 letters to go.

SIDAY has a Y, leave it at the end. DAISY pops out. D & S are circled; caption is now COEDS  _ _ _ _; 4 letters to go.

PLESEY has a Y, leave it at the end. Consonants are PLS with permutations PSL SLP SPL LPS LSP. EE is a frequent double vowel, together with SLP and Y you get SLEEPY. S & L are circled, now caption is CODESSL  _ _; 2 letters to go.

TEFRAH has 4 consonants TFRH, but TH is a frequent consonant pair so try:

THFR THRF RFTH RTHF FTHR FRTH with vowels A & E. If you sound out FTHR it sounds like " "feather" (too many letters) or FATHER (correct!). H & R are circled, and caption is now:
CODES-SLHR. You can use one of the most common consonant pairs SS with L and E to make:

CODHR - LESS

Now, looking at the cartoon we see a cord is emphasized, and the words electric and guitar occur. We could try CORD-LESS with an H left over, but since word-play almost always happens, stick the H after C and get CHORD-LESS.

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Letter frequency:

Y often at end of word: used in DAISY and SLEEPY.

EE frequently occurs, used in SLEEPY.



Letters and letter combinations that often occur at the end of words: Y, ED, ING. Half of all words end with E T D S. E used in CHOKE.

If there are 3 consonants in a word, there are six permutations: for example, WXZ, WZX, XWZ, XZW, ZWX and ZXW. Used in CHOKE and SLEEPY; CHK and SLP.

If there are 4 consonants in a word, try consonant pairs such as LL or SH, if available. Most common consonant pairs: TH ND ST LL SS TT FF RR NN PP CC. TH in FATHER.

More to follow.

Letter frequency information:

From July 30 post, we found:

Letters and letter combinations that often occur at the end of words: Y, ED, ING. Half of all words end with E T D S.

If there are 3 consonants in a word, there are six permutations: for example, WXZ, WZX, XWZ, XZW, ZWX and ZXW.

If there are 4 consonants in a word, try consonant pairs such as LL or SH, if available. Most common consonant pairs: TH ND ST LL SS TT FF RR NN PP CC.

More to follow.

Posted July 30, 2013.

I have found that students enjoy the Daily Jumble.

The Daily Jumble for July 30 2013 is on line; if you are reading this on another day, go to the archive (under the cartoon) and select July 30.

Get Jumble

You will have to tolerate a 30 second commercial. You can solve the puzzle with logic and permutations and a few rules about letter frequency in English. We will develop these techniques as we go along and collect them in one place. Today, and for a few days, I will give solving hints and then, I will post the Jumble on one day and solving hints the next. If you get the answer yourself, just by looking at it, you can skip this:

These are the puzzle words:

KLISY
YEHAV
DISGIN
LAFNEL

and the picture shows a woman varnishing a table, she says "one more coat will do it" and the caption is: "She would apply coats of varnish until the table was ________" There are 8 caption spaces.

First rule: Y often occurs at the end of a word. So stick Y at the end and you have:

_ _ _ _ Y and KLIS left over. There are three consonants, SLK and there are reasonable six permutations of three things three at a time:

KLS KSL SLK SLK LSK LKS with an I. If you sound out the consonants, SLK sounds like "silk" so you get SILKY. SI are circled, so now the caption looks like:

SI  _ _ _ _ _ _ with 6 more letters to go.

For YEHAV, put the Y at the end and you have EHAVY. This just looks like HEAVY, H and E are circled, so caption becomes SIHE _ _ _ _ with four letters to go.

Skip to LAFNEL. There are four consonants LFNL and there are 24 permutations of 4 things 4 at a time. This is awkward, but observe that LL is a frequent double consonant. So try:

FNLL and AE left over. One permutation is FLLN which sounds like "fallen;", we have an E and EN is a frequent word ending, so we have FALLEN. F and N are circled, giving a caption of SIHEFN_ _, two letters to go.

In DISGIN, we have ING, which is a frequent word ending. So, rearrange to DIS ING and DIS is left over. There are 6 permutations of DIS and we get:

DISING DSIING IDSING ISDING SDIING SIDING, the last is the only English word. I and D are circled, so now the caption is SIHEFNID, 8 letters. ED is a frequent word ending, re-arrange to:

SIHFN ED. Now, SH is a frequent consonant pair, so try six permutations of FNSH, the very first,
FNSH ED with the left over I suggests FINISHED, which with "She would apply coats of varnish until the table was" FINISHED is the caption.

Note that the caption is a word-play: "Finished" can mean "completed" or "a surface coating."

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Methods that often help:

Letters and letter combinations that often occur at the end of words: Y, ED, ING.

If there are 3 consonants in a word, there are six permutations: for example, WXZ, WZX, XWZ, XZW, ZWX and ZXW.

If there are 4 consonants in a word, try consonant pairs such as LL or SH, if available.

More to follow.