Pig Latin Instructions - Rule 3 vs 'Liquid'

Exercism Forum
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1

The input word ‘liquid’ seems to expect output processed by rule 2. when we weigh the word against rule 2 and rule 3, it leans more with rule 3 than rule 2., because rule 3 is narrower.

if rule 3 read zero or one consonant instead of zero or more consonants, then the word liquid shall follow rule 2.

but, with the current instruction wording., ‘tranquil’ will fall under rule 3 too but the test cases will expect rule 2 processed output.

2

When in doubt, trust the tests to reveal the correct/actual requirements :slightly_smiling_face:

Do the instructions say that rules have a certain order of precedence to them? If not, trust the tests to guide your implementation. Exercism relies heavily on test driven development (TDD). With TDD the tests embody the requirements.

3

Rule 3
If a word starts with zero or more consonants followed by "qu"

In both ‘liquid’ and ‘tranquil’, a vowel appears earlier than "qu", so rule 3 isn’t applicable.

  • vowels: the letters a, e, i, o, and u
  • consonants: the other 21 letters of the English alphabet
4

It is true that vowels appear before “qu” in both words, but rule 1 only applies if the word begins with a vowel which is false with these words.

5

I think what keiraville is saying is that rule 2 applies because in the word “liquid”:

  1. The first letter is “l”, a consonant
  2. The second letter is “i”, a vowel

Only rule 2 can apply here because there is a consonant (“l”) and then a vowel (“i”).

Rule 3 doesn’t apply here because there is a vowel (“i”) between the first letter (“l”) and the “qu” (i.e. it doesn’t meet the starts with zero or more consonsants followed by “qu” part of the rule).

6

Since this is a discussion about the rules of Pig Latin and not about the Python implementation of this exercise, I am moving this out of the Python category, and into the Problem Specs category.

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