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ECCESSION, ACCESSION? To me that's tomayto, tomahto.

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 7:17 pm ECCESSION, ACCESSION? To me that's tomayto, tomahto.

Agree that was a harsh decision, esp as Graham had already buzzed and got wrong, and had already won. If poor pronunciation is going to cost people words then it should do so uniformly. Unless there is a special rule for conundrums???

p.s. MORDENITE

When I watch it, all I can see is C2 getting the right answer then being told it's wrong. Maybe there was more discussion or clarification we didn't see? When a contestant says something which sounds like both the correct answer and some made-up word in neither the dictionary nor the selection, it seems very harsh to automatically take it as the latter.

In Oxford Dictionaries Premium, the pronunciation of the initial vowel sound of ACCESSION is a schwa, the neutral "uh" vowel. To me it's like "accept" and "except" - in some accents they're indistinguishable.

Many years ago there was a conundrum scramble BUDLLLEIA. I didn't know whether the answer was ALLUDIBLE or ILLUDABLE, but I wondered if either contestant would buzz and pronounce the word with all schwas to try to cover both bases, and what would have happened afterwards. As it turned out, neither of those are real words and the answer was LULLABIED, but still, it was an interesting thought exercise.

To be fair, the contestant clearly uttering ‘eccession’ for such a common word in ‘accession’ is a bit weird. Some quiz shows do insist on a “phonetically correct” rule so this isn’t unique. Unfortunate, but I think at least in preliminary matches they should allow some leeway, or perhaps ask for spelling. There’s always a chance these little mishaps occur when recording the conundrums, hence why they allow edits, re-takes, and changes of conundrums.

OSTLERING in R1
NEGATED in R10

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 8:05 pm When I watch it, all I can see is C2 getting the right answer then being told it's wrong. Maybe there was more discussion or clarification we didn't see? When a contestant says something which sounds like both the correct answer and some made-up word in neither the dictionary nor the selection, it seems very harsh to automatically take it as the latter.

Remember the TORTUROUS/TORTUOUS one a few years ago where the contestant got away with clearly saying an actual (not made-up) word that was incorrect. Mind you, the difference is that Colin is on the ball in a way that Nick never was.

I was surprised when I first heard it but listened again and it definitely started with an E the way he said it. Maybe it was his eccent or maybe there was some discussion, but I don't think there should be leeway on the basis that your wrong answer happens to sound like the right answer. He needs to have meant ACCESSION.

r3 alt: 9*(75+1)-100+10-6=588
r9 alt: 5*(100+50+1)+5=760