You’ve met A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M and N. Now it’s time for the various rounded vowels represented by the letter O.
Hello, O. You’re our penultimate vowel.
Oh yes, I am. Oh wait, unless you’re including …
We’ll come to that. What’s it like being the fourth most common letter in the language? It must keep you busy.
Oh, I don’t like to boast, but –
Can I say something? You’ve started every sentence so far with “Oh”, and I suspect the readers are already dreading the rest of the interview. Could you knock it on the head?
Ohhhhhh-K. I’ll give it the heave-ho.
And for the first time in ages, I’m interviewing a letter who is also a word. [Sings] “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee …”
“… O for the wings of a dove!” You know, it does upset me when people use “Oh”, when I – that is, “O” – looks so much better. Imagine if Shakespeare had written “… may we cram within this wooden Oh, the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt”? Nothing against h …
I’m afraid that’s Guardian style.
Eh?
Nothing against h. Or rather, O against h. You can see it here: “Oh not O”. So I’ll be editing your “O”s above. Now, there’s a good point for solvers. “NOTHING” in a clue might mean an O in an answer.
You’re saying I’m good for nothing? Don’t worry, I’m pretty thick-skinned. Plus, it means that I get to be LOVE and a DUCK, even sometimes an EGG.
That’s something that marks you out. As well as the “O-” words you might expect – OXYGEN, OVER, ORDINARY, OSCAR and most of all OLD – your presence in an answer might be indicated solely by reference to your shape.
Yep. It’s the shape your mouth makes to make me. Even in languages with completely unrelated alphabets, a circle is pretty much gonna be an “ohhhhh” sound. I’ve been HOOP; I’ve been CIRCLE; I’ve been BALL; I’ve been simply ROUND.
On the face of it, you’re not like, say, C: a solver sees you’re in a word and thinks they know how to “say” that part of the answer in their head. But it’s not that simple. Compare “otter”, “oven”, “once”. “To” doesn’t rhyme with “no” …
… you say “potato”, as they say.
As for where you come, you’re more likely towards the beginning of a word. Chambers’ “common words” has only 391 ending with you –
– and what words! Akimbo, blotto, cappuccino, through kazoo to zoo. As we see in those last two, I like my own company almost as much as E and L do.
Which brings us to a device where a solver might think “they’re not doing that, are they?”
SPECTACLES for an OO, you mean? I certainly prefer it to the way Private Eye’s puzzle repeatedly indicates OO.
Balls?
It’s absolutely true. Cheery-O!
More guidance
Cryptic devices: hidden answers; double definitions; defining by example; cryptic definitions; soundalikes; spoonerisms; stammering; containers; reversals; initial letters; alternate letters; cycling; taking most of a word; percentages of a word; naked words; first and last letters; middle letters; removing middle letters.
Bits and bobs: Roman numerals; Nato alphabet; Greek letters; chemistry; abbreviations for countries; points of the compass; more points of the compass; playing cards; capital letters; boys and girls; apostrophes; cricket; alcohol; the church; politics; Latin; royals; newspapers; doctors; drugs; music; animals; cars; cities; rivers; clothing; boats; when the setter’s name appears; when the solver appears; “cheating”.
Individual letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N.