Writing a Fractured Words Quiz

Answer: Fractured Equipment used in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Many people (especially trivia players) are familiar with things such as horse breeds, car makers and items commonly found in a grocery store. Equipment used in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit can be highly specialised and unfamiliar to the average player. Subjects which require such specialised knowledge should be avoided when making a Brain Teaser quiz.

Answer: No

The objective of a Fractured Words quiz is to produce a clue which SOUNDS like, not looks like, the answer. For example, 'may pull' can be used as an fractured word clue for 'maple' as it sounds like 'maple'. The 'st' in 'staple' doesn't sound like the 'm' in 'maple' and therefore can't be a clue.

Answer: Yes

Let's imagine you're writing a Fractured Words quiz and you want to fracture the word 'joking'. One way to fracture that word would be 'Joe keen'. 'Ma Kettle' could be fractured with the clue 'Mark ate all'. Using proper nouns gives you more flexibility to fracture words, so go ahead!

Please remember that all words in the clues should be reasonably familiar to an average English speaker so they are familiar with how the word sounds, and must be found in a standard dictionary.

Answer: Her first name is spelt in an atypical way.

Katharine Hepburn is certainly a recognisable name to many people, especially movie lovers. Having passed away is not a bar to being in a Fractured Words quiz. No, the problem with Katharine Hepburn's name is that her first name can be spelt in many ways, and her spelling is not a common one.

A player might know the right answer but be unable to spell it correctly thanks to confusion between Katharine, Kathryn, Cathryn, Cathrine, Kathrine, etc., all of which are possible variations of the name. Whilst it's reasonable to expect a movie lover to get the spelling correct in a Movies quiz, Brain Teaser quizzes shouldn't be made deliberately difficult with words that have many variant spellings.

Answer: Sinner door

'Sinner door' would work as a clue for 'senator'. It's not an exact match, but there are no extraneous sounds which could distract a player from the correct answer. In a quiz about political figures, 'sinner door' would certainly be satisfactory. 'Scent otter' has a 't' sound at the end of 'scent' which isn't found in 'senator'. 'She nadir' has an extra 'h', while 'Stent a door' has the first 't' which isn't found in 'senator', making it unsuitable as a fractured clue for 'senator'.

Answer: Font reeve he yaw

A fractured word quiz takes the answer and uses other English words which, when spoken, sound like the answer. Fractured word clues can't have any words spelt the same way as the answer. This therefore eliminates 'FUN reeve ear' and 'Fawn TRIVIA' from being possible answers. The other option was 'Fawn drippy yaw'. The middle word, 'drippy', has a 'pp' sound which isn't found in 'Funtrivia' and therefore it can't be used to fracture 'Funtrivia'.

That leaves us with 'Font reeve he yaw'. It's not a identically sounding phrase to 'Funtrivia' but when said at normal speaking speed, there is a close resemblance. Note how the words 'fun' and 'trivia' have been merged a little so the 't' from 'trivia' is on the end of the 'fun'. You can take syllables or letters from one word and join them onto adjacent words. In fact, that's can be a great way to fracture a word in a new way and add some variety.

Answer: No

The clue need not make any sense. Just as 'Font reeve he yaw' and 'Sinner door' make little sense and do not make a complete sentence, Fractured Word clues do not need to make sense. They only need to sound like the answer.

Answer: Spider-man

No Fill in the Blank answer anywhere on Funtrivia may have any punctuation. Different keyboards around the world render characters differently. A player may use the correct punctuation for their region yet be marked incorrect. It's much fairer to all to eliminate any punctuation factor. This rule includes accents such as a cedillas, hyphens, apostrophes or umlauts. You may see older quizzes on the site which do have punctuation, but the rules have changed over the years as FunTrivia has developed.

Please also note that if an answer needs punctuation to be correct, leaving the punctuation out of the answer is not allowed. In Spider-Man's case, an answer of 'Spiderman' is incorrect, and therefore will not be allowed in the quiz. This rule also applies throughout FunTrivia as a whole.

Answer: No

One syllable words can frequently be joined onto adjacent words and fractured clues made that way. For example, if you wanted to fracture the answer 'My stamina', it could be done by making the clue 'Mice ta meaner'. 'New Zealand' can be fractured by running the 'Z' sound into 'New', making a clue of 'Noose eel end'.

Fractured Word quizzes with broad topics (such as 'Things in the Fridge') can have many questions and answers, so if you can't fracture a one syllable word as described, try to find a different answer to fracture. In topics which have a narrower base (for instance 'Animals with Hoofs'), it may not always be possible to fracture every one syllable word properly. In those instances, if they aren't too many in the quiz, they will be accepted.

Answer: No

The idea of fracturing a word or phrase is to break it up into sound bites by using words with similar pronunciations. By using the same word in the clue, you've not fractured anything. Also note that you can't repeat a clue used previously in the same quiz. It is a Brain Teaser quiz after all, so it's only fair enough to make the player think a little for each question!

You can find other types of Word Play quizzes, including Fractured Word quizzes, in categories such as Movies, Music, Television and Geography. Not all categories will have a Word Play section so check first before writing a quiz for a specific category. Not all types of quizzes will be accepted in categories other than Brain Teasers either, so it's worthwhile playing quizzes that are already there. If the type of quiz you have in mind isn't there, but you really like your idea, discuss it with an editor before spending hours on a quiz that won't go online in the end.