Spoilers for Wednesday July 10th 2013 (Series 69 Prelim 8)

[Jordan F]

Another win for June Glasspell means she's at 2, can she get the third today?

Join James for the recap later.

[Jack Worsley]

R7: MIELIE

[Philip Wilson]

Alt 1st numbers: (100 + (5x3)) x (9-3)

[Tony Atkins]

Alt of UNLIKE in R13 and hence beater of SUNLIKE.

Too much gambling by Jessamine - would have expected her to win a few.

[Jack Worsley]

Alt of UNLIKE in R13 and hence beater of SUNLIKE.

Too much gambling by Jessamine - would have expected her to win a few.

Agreed, although you have to wonder if she had a safe six in the SOAPAGE^ round. She was certainly decent but the invalid words probably cost her the game.

[Brian Moore]

Alt of UNLIKE in R13 and hence beater of SUNLIKE.

Today's should-be-in-the-dictionary-by-now word: ^UNLIKES - 232,000,000 hits on Google. Beats my regular example ^LAGGY (4,400,000 hits) which the OED & ODE still inexplicably overlook.

Good comeback by June, though helped by poor gambles by Jessamine.

[Andy Platt]

She was certainly decent

Rating out of 10?

[James Robinson]

What do we think about WORNEST We officially give it as a no, no, although Susie's definition of the rules suggests otherwise............

[Andy Platt]

Gotta accept it by the rules

[Jack Worsley]

What do we think about WORNEST We officially give it as a no, no, although Susie's definition of the rules suggests otherwise............

It's interesting that all monosyllabic adjectives can be extended by adding ER or EST according to the rules. Some of them sound completely ridiculous. I remember that in my sixth game, my opponent had MAINER disallowed which sounds stupid but according to the rules, it should be valid. It wouldn't have scored anyway but there was a mini debate about it afterwards. http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8758 I'm pretty sure the rules haven't changed on comparatives since then which highlights some inconsistency in Susie's judgement. I'm not entirely comfortable on allowing every monosyllabic to be extended in this way so either the next edition of the dictionary needs to be clearer on this or if not, it should be a case of applying common sense. This could cause more problems though.

[David Williams]

WORN means damaged and shabby, so obviously something can be more worn than something else. I think the issue here is that normal usage is more/most worn, rather than worner or wornest. Is it the case that adjectives that started life as past participles don't typically take -er or -est? My cuffs are more frayed than yours, they certainly aren't frayeder. But the dictionary and Countdown rules could hardly be clearer. WORNEST is fine.

[Clive Brooker]

But the dictionary and Countdown rules could hardly be clearer. WORNEST is fine.

The dictionary says that 1-syllable adjective taking -er and -est are treated as regular and are not shown. I've never seen how this can be interpreted as implying that these forms automatically exist for every 1-syllable adjective. As for the Countdown rule, as far as I know this includes expressions like "rule of thumb", "you’ll get used to what is acceptable and what isn’t", "general rule" and "they are pretty obvious anyway". It could definitely be clearer.

[Gavin Chipper]

But the dictionary and Countdown rules could hardly be clearer. WORNEST is fine.

The dictionary says that 1-syllable adjective taking -er and -est are treated as regular and are not shown. I've never seen how this can be interpreted as implying that these forms automatically exist for every 1-syllable adjective. As for the Countdown rule, as far as I know this includes expressions like "rule of thumb", "you’ll get used to what is acceptable and what isn’t", "general rule" and "they are pretty obvious anyway". It could definitely be clearer.

What is the exact wording? In the NODE (a few dictionaries back), it says:

The following forms for comparative and superlative are regarded as regular and not shown in the dictionary:
words of one syllable adding -er and -est, e.g. great -> greater, greatest

I think this is ambiguous to be honest.

But generally speaking, if you think the dictionary has problems, write to them.

[sean d]

Just regarding er/est comparatives, I have the contestant guidelines in front of me and there's no mention of the subject in 4 pages on ODE usage and interpretation. So there's literally no rule. I'm pisseder and tireder with this than most so I'm gonna get my goldest pen and write a letter on the wornest paper I can find.