Two For the Price of One
These brain teasers rely on your ability to recognize groups of common attributes. For each of these puzzles you'll need to figure out why the words or letters are grouped as they are. Sometimes you will be asked to pick the odd-one-out or to place a new word into the correct group.
Which word from Group B can be added to Group A? Why?
Group A: bear, fall, grind, lie
Group B: drop, measure, play, see, tape, walk
Answer
see
Each word in Group A is an irregular verb whose past tense is also the present tense of a regular verb. For a regular verb, the past tense is simply the present tense with a "D" or "ED" or "_ED" added on its end (drop, dropped; measure, measured; play, played; tape, taped; walk, walked). With an irregular verb, the past tense is not achieved in those ways.
The past tense of BEAR is BORE; the past tense of BORE is BORED.
The past tense of FALL is FELL; the past tense of FELL is FELLED.
The past tense of GRIND is GROUND; the past tense of GROUND is GROUNDED.
The past tense of LIE is LAY; the past tense of LAY is LAID.
The past tense of SEE is SAW; the past tense of SAW is SAWED.
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Comments
grilledcheese 
Apr 20, 2007
| Good teaser, i liked it  |
vlerma 
Apr 23, 2007
| I'm still having trouble with this one. I don't know how to describe my problem without giveing away the answer so I will simply say I feel the meaning of the correct word was changed as I had always used it by saying it had been ---n because the other means cut. Sorry. Maybe I'm wrong and do not fully understand what you are attempting here.  |
mixed_masteress
Apr 23, 2007
| This is why I love english. Its full of puzzles. =). Teriffic Teaser! |
leftclick 
Jul 23, 2007
| I love it! I was way off track trying to add or remove letters 
vlerma, the "simple past" (or "past tense") of see is saw - "I saw you there." A simple past can be replaced by the present tense to make a correct sentence, albeit with a different meaning ("I see you there") - that is what makes it "simple". The "past participle" of see is seen - "I have seen you there before." Note the use of have/had. That's a fairly basic description but I hope it helps
Also I don't think you need to worry about discussing the answer here - others will need to click to see the comments anyway, and I think most people check the answer first |
4demo
Nov 23, 2007
| Difficult but good! I couldn't figure it out at all, but the explanation was great!  |
crazy10man
May 24, 2009
| Clever! |
builder
May 24, 2009
| Wow, I did not see that coming. Your only supposed to tease my brain, not break it. |
doehead 
May 24, 2009
| Need another cup of coffee after that one. |
blackwolfe
May 24, 2009
| I totally read it wrong and was trying to add a word from Group A to Group B. That's what I get for trying this so early in the morning... 
But a great teaser nonetheless!  |
bradon182001
May 24, 2009
| Ok, want to run that one by me again? I sure didn't get it. Vlerma, you aren't alone.... But, thanks for posting.  |
auntiesis
May 24, 2009
| I didn't get the answer, but I understood the answer. Once you have a clue as to what you are looking for it became crystal clear.   |
tonjawithaj
May 26, 2009
| I htought it might have something to do with that. Good puzzle! |
avonma
May 26, 2009
| Hmm-m-m...
I got the right answer, but for the wrong reason... |
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