Help for Newcomers

[Laura]

You know, I've noticed that also. I kept thinking the 3 S's were E's. This is a new pattern to look for.

[ernests]

I can't add much to the cryptographic advice above but I'd just add that occasionally it can help to look at who the quote is from. If you know who's saying it you might be more likely to think of the right possibilities for what they might be saying.

For example, if it's Anthony Robbins or some other self-help guru then you might spot that "success" or "self-esteem" a little quicker, and if it's Shakespeare, you might realise that that odd word in the second line is "forsooth" or "thou'rt".

[Laura]

Who said it

Ernests, you are so right. And if it's Helen Rowland, it's usually about marriage. Ambrose Bierce has the wacky definitions. And then there's always Dan Quayle with the ridiculous quotations. (One of my favorites: Space is almost infinite. As a matter of fact, we think it is infinite.)

I really think he's got something there!!

[maradnu]

another observation

When I see a four letter word preceding a hyphen, I often try self- and see how that works.

Not always, but pretty often.

[Laura]

You're right. And usually if it's 3 letters it's non-, like in non-violence. There's a good chance that might be Mahatma Ghandi (sometimes spelled Gandhi) or Martin Luther King, Jr.

[sonofcarc]

When stuck and slogging away, try "TION" as the last four letters of each word of 9 letters or more (assuming there are any).

If the last letter of a long word is the same as the fourth from the last, try E in that spot, as words ending in -ENCE show up frequently in these quotes. As does KNOWLEDGE.

Someone may already have given this one, but a six-letter word with the first and fourth as the only repeats is often ALWAYS (but never OFTEN). ("I said, 'Often' ('Frequently') only once!")

[maradnu]

Help

Well, folks looking for 'cheats' won't exactly find those in this thread, but can certainly find helpful hints.

[Angie]

maradnu you are hot #@%#@! !! here i thought i was so cool cuz i thought of a couple of 'that' possiblities that weren't mentioned. that is, of course, until you added your list!

[AmberRose]

You are right, Angie, alot of helpful tips.

[fiziwig]

http://fiziwig.com/crypto/pword.txt

Hey, what a surprise to join this group today and see my own website being plugged!

FWIW: I just updated my pattern word dictionary. I rebuilt it from scratch using new source documents. The URL is the same as before, but here's an explanation of what I changed: http://fiziwig.com/crypto/pattern.html

BTW: I thought I was good at cryptograms till I came here! Holy cow! It is taking me at least twice as long as the average to solve these things!

I'm used to the more "cerebral" cryptograms that I ponder over for hours with pencil and paper. With this APP it's really more like playing Wheel of Fortune on TV. I just wish I could buy a vowel sometimes.

--fiziwig

[jdege]

I spent a month on this board, working hard every day to keep my name on the leader board. Then a couple of months later, they had a crash, and lost all the historical data. So I had to do it again.

I enjoy solving cryptograms, but cracking the hundreds necessary, every day, to get a a ranking starts to feel like work.

So now, and until they lose their data again, I just come by every now and again, and dabble.

[kimmie]

help from the slow side of average

I like to take a few seconds to scan the puzzle and try to predict basic sentence elements. As mentioned by others, a common English sentence pattern is "a blankety-blank is," "There is/are" (if it's "are," the subject is automatically plural, which gives you your "s," if the word is regular). "The best/worst thing about blank is blank." I also look for if/then constructions, as well as either/or; neither/nor not only...but...

Punctuation gives you clues, too (except for poetry, where the punctuation is not necessarily regular). As mentioned by others, you would expect to see a conjunction such as "and," "but," "for," "nor," "yet" after a comma (unless it's a list of things, in which case you automatically know you have "and" before the last item listed. Obviously, a period signals the start of a new sentence, but so does a semi-colon ( and a comma plus conjunction. The punctuation tells you that you have a new subject and verb to find. English sentences are pretty regular about being in this form: subject + verb, and then any modifiers. And, obviously, if you have a sentence that is a question, you need to find how, what, when, where, why, ect. Sometimes if I'm stuck here, I will call the second letter "h" and see how it goes. Some of the hardest puzzles have no punctuation to guide you.

Proverbs almost never use the first person, so if you have a proverbial saying, a one-letter word is going to be "a." Proverbs also regularly use the "imperative" mood, which is used for commands: "don't do...", etc.

Sometimes if I'm stuck, I will call the most frequent letter "e:" sometimes you just have to make a guess, jump in, and see where your guess takes you.