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In a twist on consonant sameness, each clue leads to a pair of words that swap their vowels to reveal a common phrase.

Example

The clue

Latest, forested (6, 5)

has solution

latter, treed $\longrightarrow$ letter trade

because

latter, treed = lttr + ae, trd + ee
$\qquad\qquad$and
letter, trade = lttr + ee, trd + ae.

Note that the sequences of consonants and vowels each maintain their order but may be combined in a different way. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of letters in each clued word (latter, treed); unlike in this example, the words in the answer phrase (letter, trade) may have different numbers of letters, if the number of vowels in each word differs.

Clues

  1. Annoy, squad (4, 4)
  2. Cheers, journey (6, 4)
  3. Drum, ambiences (5, 5)
  4. Mushrooms, woman (5, 3)
  5. Overacts, reduced (4, 3)
  6. Skin, active (4, 4)
  7. Sugary, listens (3, 5)
  8. Thug, rind (4, 4)
  9. Yearn, disadvantage (4, 3)

Clarification: In this puzzle, the vowels are only the standard a, e, i, o, and u; every other letter is considered a consonant.

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7
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ So the clues are only used to find half of the solution, then the complete solution is "dealer's choice"? $\endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    May 22, 2018 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ @IanMacDonald I'm not sure what this refers to. Is it the fact that there are multiple ways the consonants and vowels can recombine in each word? $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 22, 2018 at 15:43
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    $\begingroup$ It just feels like a partial puzzle. The clues and letter counts offer a path to the left-hand words, but there's no motivation for any of the right-hand words aside from "these words work, I guess". I understand the hesitation in making the clues also descriptive of the RHS, but without something pointing at a "right answer", it just feels unsatisfying. $\endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    May 22, 2018 at 16:00
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    $\begingroup$ @IanMacDonald Ah, I see. I agree, and while planning I had clues for the final answers as well but then worried about backsolving eliminating the need for the vowel swap gimmick. Then I considered writing vague tangential clues for the RHS that would only make sense in the context of the answer, but that was also a little unsatisfactory because it just felt like poor cluing. Definitely something to think about in the future. Thanks for the feedback! $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 22, 2018 at 18:58
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    $\begingroup$ @IanMacDonald I disagree. The right hand side is what makes it a complete puzzle. Yes, as we saw, what qualifies as a "common phrase" is a bit subjective. But I think noedne did a great job of picking words where, when you get the answer, you get that satisfying feeling of knowing that you got it correct. That's how I felt for each one I completed anyway, and when I saw the answers that others found. Just my 2 cents $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    May 23, 2018 at 19:49

4 Answers 4

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#9 I think is a trick question, which is appropriate since it was the last one.

1. Annoy, squad $\implies$ rile, team $\implies$ real time
2. Cheers, journey $\implies$ elates, tour $\implies$ lotus-eater (solved by ManyPinkHats)
3. Drum, ambiences $\implies$ tabla, auras $\implies$ tabula rasa
4. Mushrooms, woman $\implies$ fungi, she $\implies$ feng shui
5. Overacts, reduced $\implies$ hams, low $\implies$ Ohm’s law
6. Skin, active $\implies$ flay, spry $\implies$ fly spray (solved by hagfy)
7. Sugary, listens $\implies$ -ose (suffix), hears $\implies$ sea horse
8. Thug, rind $\implies$ goon, peel $\implies$ gene pool
9. Yearn, disadvantage $\implies$ long, con $\implies$ long con

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  • $\begingroup$ Great job so far, just a couple more! $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    Apr 29, 2018 at 22:33
  • $\begingroup$ @noedne pretty stumped on the last 2 :( $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    Apr 30, 2018 at 1:27
  • $\begingroup$ @noedne added a guess for #7 $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    May 19, 2018 at 1:15
  • $\begingroup$ An interesting try for #6, albeit with an obscure answer phrase. As I should have clarified in the question, I am considering all letters other than the standard $5$ vowels as consonants, regardless of usage in specific words. Your interpretation was also reasonable given that y is used as a vowel in these two words. I appreciate the continued effort on this puzzle! I am usually reluctant to add hints, but perhaps it is time to add one. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 19, 2018 at 1:41
  • $\begingroup$ I bet that journey translates to “rot13>gevc” in puzzle two, if that helps. $\endgroup$
    – Sean
    May 22, 2018 at 13:55
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A guess for #2: Cheers, journey (6, 4)

ELATES, TOUR $\implies$ lotus-eater

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  • $\begingroup$ Argh, I never came up with your first word. I think you got it...nice work! $\endgroup$
    – hagfy
    May 23, 2018 at 19:12
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    $\begingroup$ I came up with both of those words separately, but never together :'( $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    May 23, 2018 at 19:17
  • $\begingroup$ You got the last one! All of you deserve +1 for getting some really tricky answers, and @ferret will get the tick for solving the majority of the clues, probably after editing in the two other contributions for sake of completeness. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 23, 2018 at 21:30
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6) Skin, active (4, 4):

Flay, Spry $\implies$ Fly Spray

Still stuck on #2, but I really want to know what it is, so here are a couple ideas I've come up with:

WHOOPs, Trip $\implies$ Whips Troop (some kind of soldier who uses whips?)
Proost, Ride $\implies$ Priest Rood (barrier in a church that blocks the priest from view?)

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    $\begingroup$ Correct! I was under the impression that this was a common phrase, but I could very well have been mistaken. Apologies for the artificial difficulty if that was the case! $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    May 21, 2018 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ Oh wow, cool! It very well could be a common phrase, but I just don't hang out in the right circles. =D I really just wasn't sure if it fit what you were looking for. Now let's get #2 answered! $\endgroup$
    – hagfy
    May 22, 2018 at 11:34
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I think I got #2

Thanks, trip -> Thinks, trap

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  • $\begingroup$ Good try, but the answer should be a common phrase :) $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    Apr 29, 2018 at 3:55
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, I see now. Missed that part. $\endgroup$
    – Riley
    Apr 29, 2018 at 3:57
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    $\begingroup$ No worries, the example was probably slightly misleading as "letter trade" is not a common phrase, but I wanted something thematic. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    Apr 29, 2018 at 4:01

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