Teatime Teasers

[Wil Ransome]

Perhaps this has been talked about before, in which case my apologies, but why is it that, with any number of perfectly good 8-letter words that could surely be made into suitable teatime teasers, we are repeatedly fobbed off with pluralised 7-letter ones?

[Charlie Reams]

If someone solves the teaser, they feel happy. Plural ones are easier to solve. So, modus ponens.

[Jason Larsen]

They could be compound words also.

[Wil Ransome]

What does "modus ponens" mean? It isn't in Chambers.

[Jason Larsen]

That's 11 letters, not 8.

[Charlie Reams]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_ponens

[Jason Larsen]

So, Latin just might help you out on Countdown.

Very interesting.

[Damian E]

Perhaps this has been talked about before, in which case my apologies, but why is it that, with any number of perfectly good 8-letter words that could surely be made into suitable teatime teasers, we are repeatedly fobbed off with pluralised 7-letter ones?

Just checked quickly, and of the last 110 teasers we've used in production, there were 22 that were pluralised 7's. It's not something i consider when putting them together to be honest.