Spoilers for Thursday 28th October 2021 (Series 84, Prelim 88)

[Thomas Carey]

you better believe it's countdown

[Mark Kudlowski]

1st numbers alt:

(6 + 8 + 5) x (8 + 9 + 2)

[Gavin Chipper]

GELATINES seems a bit dodgy to me. I haven't seen the non-free entry and it's valid on Apterous so maybe I'm missing something. But Susie's explanation was that you can have different strengths of gelatine, which coincides with one of the example sentences (which supposedly aren't used).

‘they are testing different strength gelatins in low-calorie products’

[Fiona T]

GELATINES seems a bit dodgy to me. I haven't seen the non-free entry and it's valid on Apterous so maybe I'm missing something. But Susie's explanation was that you can have different strengths of gelatine, which coincides with one of the example sentences (which supposedly aren't used).

‘they are testing different strength gelatins in low-calorie products’

Premium has [COUNT NOUN] next to that example sentence

[Philip A]

What Fiona said.

Remember that Countdown uses Oxford Dictionaries Premium first before Lexico; because the former is more accurate and more reliable as it gives some [COUNT NOUN] senses for some mass nouns. Susie did not give her own explanation; the lexicographer reads what is given on the relevant page. Lexico is turned to after a word comes up as invalid according to Premium (so if OUTLAID was declared, they would turn to Lexico after Premium).

Per Premium:

gelatin
Pronunciation: /ˈdʒɛlətɪn/
(also gelatine /ˈdʒɛlətiːn/)
NOUN

[MASS NOUN]
1
A virtually colourless and tasteless water-soluble protein prepared from collagen and used in food preparation, in photographic processes, and in glue:
stir the gelatin into the salmon mixture
[COUNT NOUN] : they are testing different strength gelatins in low-calorie products

So GELATINES isn’t dodgy at all. If a word allowed on Countdown/Apterous is not in Lexico, then it’s probably in Premium (there are entries from the US English dictionary under the British English section in Premium and these are not in Lexico, e.g. COQUI).

EXERTIONS is another example that gives a [COUNT NOUN] sense in Premium but not in Lexico.

Another difference is there are a handful of erroneously uncapitalised words in Lexico, and these are ignored (hence mohawk x isn’t allowed).

Hope all this helps for future reference.

[Gavin Chipper]

Yeah, I knew they used premium but I didn't know that they added the count noun to an example sentence like that. So that was why I questioned it. But thanks both of you.

[Toby McDonald]

LOITERED in R4

R6 Alt.: (50/25*6-1)*75-9 = 816

[Howie Myers]

r 7: HARLOTISE