Solve Cryptoquotes

It's great to keep the mind alive, awake, and thinking. I like Sudoku. I love cross-word puzzles. I really love cryptoquotes. With cryptoquotes I use a lot of thinking and eventually get to the "prize". The "prize" is the quote. If they were mere messages, I may not be so enthused. The quotes are like daily messages of hope, humor, and philosophy. It's like unwrapping a gift.

DRI DEWTNBI AVDR JWHI AWHIP VJ DRQD DRIF CID QBB

IGKVDIO WUIE PWDRVPC QPO DRIP HQEEF RVH.

--KRIE--

A good rule to know in solving “crypto-quotes” or cryptic messages is that the most used letters in the alphabet are “ETOIN”. It is also in this order –“ETOIN”. “E” is the most used letter in the alphabet. Watch out as “E” may very well not be the most used letter in the cryptic message you are solving.

At one time, if I were asked what letter would be used the most, my answer might have been the letter “S”. As you can see, the letter “S” is not even in the top five used letters.

I didn’t solve the solution of the “five most used letters” being “ETOIN”. It was during a Sherlock Holmes movie that this riddle was revealed to me. Sherlock actually said “the most used letters in the alphabet are “ETOIN” and he was able to solve the message and the “case”.

Of course single letters are mostly, almost always, “I” and “A”. An important clue here is that few three letter words start with the letter “I”. Many more start with “A”. This is a great way to confirm these two letters if allowed.

Some words that are of great help in the quest to solve the crypto-quotes are obvious and some are surprising:

The, that, this, thing, think, and others that have repeating letters such as the “T” and “H”, are of great help. If you have a lot of words with the sequence of “T” followed by the “H” or the word “which” (“W” and “H” plus “C” and “H”) can help immensely and speedily.

The word “THAT” is an incredible expediter. The first and last letters are the same. Other letters can repeat but not so often. The word “ELSE” comes to mind. However if you see the letter “E” used more often than any other and can see “THAT” and maybe confirm that “THE” is a strong possibility in another part of the “quote/puzzle”, then you’re probably off to a good, and fast start. Remember the letters “E” and “T” are the most popular.

Remember that in “crypto-quotes” found in the newspaper or tagged as being crypto-QUOTES” complete sentences are probably used. The words the, that, and others will be used often.

Quite often sentence structure will help solve the puzzle. A noun will very often be followed by a verb. The small words can be enlightening and confusing, as in: “It is” or “If it”.

If the puzzle is leaning toward the “difficult” look for ending repeated such as “ing” and often “tion”. Of course “tion” will usually be at the end of longer words.

Quite often, more than I would have thought, the word “people” has helped me. Remember these “in the paper” will be quotes and “people” is not an unusual word. With the word “people” you have an obscure letter “P” repeated and the often used letter”E”.

I’ve been somewhat surprised at being helped by the word “always”. If you have the single letter you might be close to the word “always” if you have the six letter word with the first and fourth being the same. It helps when the “A” has been identified.

I try to solve all “cryptoquotes” without the help of the author’s name. Sometimes the author’s name makes it too easy. Sometimes it is essential for me to solve the author’s name as I will show. To give you a leg up on “some” authors I will now “clue you in”.

Occasionally the author of the “crypto-quote” will not be known. In this case the author will actually be: "ANONYMOUS", “AUTHOR UNKNOWN”, “SOURCE UNKNOWN”, “CHINESE PROVERB”, “FRENCH PROVERB”, etc. The best clue here would be the three “N”s in “UNKNOWN”.

DRI DEWTNBI AVDR JWHI AWHIP VJ DRQD DRIF CID QBB

IGKVDIO WUIE PWDRVPC QPO DRIP HQEEF RVH.

--KRIE--

The puzzle above is ideal. It has the word “THAT”- a word that ends as it begins. But it also is somewhat confirmed by the word “THE”, and that the word “THE” is placed at the beginning of the sentence where it is often found.

The  t            e       t h        e       e          t h a t   the       et   a       e      t e

DRI  DEWTNBI  AVDR JWHI AWHIP  VJ  DRQD  DRIF  CID  QBB  IGKVDIO

     e         t h          a        the       a         h

WUIE  PWDRVPC  QPO  DRIP  HQEEF  RVH.

                  --KRIE--

Each time you see a "D" it will be replaced with a "T". Each time you see and "R" it will be replaced with an "H". Each time you see a "Q" it will be replaced with an "A"- and so on.

Now after studying the placement of letters I actually take a (high probable) chance with the word “VJ” being “IS”. Because of the way the sentence begins I feel that the third word is “WITH” making the second word “TROUBLE”. “TROUBLE” is a natural fit after “THE” and before “WITH”. “Feeling” strong about this sequence I will eye the entire puzzle and if I feel good enough about it, fill in the letters I feel strongly about. I have strong suspicions about “QBB IGKVDIO”.

The  t r o u b l e  w i t h   so e  wo   e    is   t h a t   t he      e t  a       e    i t e

DRI   DEWTNBI   AVDR  JWHI  AWHIP  VJ  DRQD  DRIF  CID  QBB  IGKVDIO

o er        o t h i         a       t he       a r r     h i

WUIE   PWDRVPC  QPO  DRIP   HQEEF  RVH.

While installing these missing letters above I discover, as I’m doing so that it is a high probability that the fifth word is “WOMEN” and the letter “P” is an “N” and there is a high probability that the third from last word could be “THEN”. Glancing back the word “NOTHING” comes to mind quickly. The fourth word has to be “SOME”. I now add the “probable letters”. Now I know the letter “H” is an “M”.

The    trouble      with   some  women  is    that     the       et   a       e    i t e

DRI  DEWTNBI  AVDR  JWHI  AWHIP  VJ  DRQD  DRIF  CID  QBB  IGKVDIO

o   er     nothing       an     then   marry     him.

WUIE  PWDRVPC   QPO  DRIP  HQEEF  RVH.

From here I can almost read the sentence and sentence structure really helps. I can tell right away that “O” is probably a “D”. Reading almost all the top line I’m sure that “THEY “GET” something that ends with an “ED”. I’m betting “all exited”.

The   trouble      with    some women  is    that    they  get  a      e i t e d

DRI  DEWTNBI  AVDR  JWHI  AWHIP  VJ DRQD DRIF CID QBB IGKVDIO

o er     nothing      an    then  marry    him.

WUIE PWDRVPC QPO DRIP HQEEF RVH.

“The trouble with some women is that they get all exited over nothing and then they marry him.” By CHER

The author’s name would have helped solve the puzzle more quickly but part of doing these puzzles is to “solve”, extend some brain power, or else we could just read “quotes”.

The crypto-quote below was very hard for me. I did not want to spend a great portion of my life on it so I resorted to trying to guess the author. Unfortunately that answer didn’t come right away either. Perhaps logic helped a bit. Luck helped as well.

E  WMZRG  AQ  QZSH  NATRG  TUGHKJPEUG  PMZJ.  JHUG 

JALHAUH  PA  QHPWM  E  WMZRG  AQ  QZSH. 

       --BKATWMA  LEKO--

At first I didn’t know if “E” was an “A” or an “I”. I was thinking at one point that the word “TUGHKJEUG” had an ending of “TION”. In this scenario, “PEUG” would be “TION”. “E” would be the “I”. There was the repetition of letters “WM” three times in the quote (once again in the author’s name). I just couldn’t come up with a sentence or sentence “structure” that allowed the “TH” scenario before “I” and after “I”. I taxed my grey matter for words and “scenarios” with “TH”, SH”, and “CH”.

I gave in and went to the author’s name. I couldn’t think of a last name with the letter “I” as the second letter and I’m sure there are many.

I just decided to go with “E” as being “A”, at least temporarily.

Still, I could not solve the puzzle- not quickly.

The author’s first name has “WM”. I switched these letters to “TH”, “SH”, and “CH”. It was then that the name “Groucho” came to me. His last name “Marx” demonstrates how a rarely used letter can help. If the letter is absent in all the rest of the puzzle, then check out the rarely used letters.

A  c h            o                  o                    r     a         h                 om  o        o

E  WMZRG   AQ  QZSH   NATRG  TUGHKJPEUG  PMZJ. JHUG JALHAUH PA

        c h a  c h         o

QHPWM E WMZRG AQ QZSH.

  G r o u c h o M a r x

-- BKATWMA   LEKO --

I had decided previously that if the first letter was “A”, then it could follow that “A” could be an “I” or “O”. So- no problem with changing the “A”s to “O”s and then “Q”s to “F”s. I seemed like good sentence structure.

The words “PMZJ” and “PA” could mean the “P” is a “T” or an “S”. I chose the “T” for the better odds.

A  ch           o f   f             o                   r   t a       t h                   om  o        to

E  WMZRG  AQ  QZSH  NATRG  TUGHKJPEUG  PMZJ.  JHUG  JALHAUH   PA

f     c   h  a   ch            of   f      

QHPWM  E  WMZRG  AQ  QZSH.

G r o u c h o M a r x

--BKATWMA LEKO--

From this point the obvious letter missing is the ever popular “E”. There are several words that end with the letter “H”. I’m sold. I switch the letters “H” to letters “E”. As I’m visualizing this I see the word “someone” in “JALHAUH”. If this could be true then “PMZJ” is “this”.

A  ch             of   f      e    o               n  erstan        this.   Sen     someone  to

E  WMZRG   AQ  QZSH  NATRG  TUGHKJPEUG  PMZJ.  JHUG  JALHAUH  PA

  fetch    a  ch          of   f      e

QHPWM E WMZRG AQ QZSH.

G r o u c h o M a r x

--BKATWMA LEKO--

Of course we can see from above, now, the word “understand”. We switch all the remaining letters accordingly.

A  ch     d   of   f      e   ou  d     understand    this.    Send someone  to

E WMZRG AQ QZSH NATRG TUGHKJPEUG PMZJ. JHUG JALHAUH PA

   fetch    a  ch   d     of   f   e.

QHPWM E WMZRG AQ QZSH.

G r o u c h o M a r x

--BKATWMA LEKO--

There are only five vowels (plus “Y” sometimes). The obvious vowel missing is, of course, “I”. Knowing this and visually substituting letters, the obvious answer leaps.

A   child     of    five    could       understand    this.   Send  someone to

E WMZRG AQ QZSH NATRG TUGHKJPEUG PMZJ. JHUG JALHAUH PA

  fetch    a    child     of    five.

QHPWM E WMZRG AQ QZSH.

     -- Groucho Marx--

    --BKATWMA LEKO--

This next cryptoquote appeared in the January 9, 2010 paper that I received 10 days later. I hadn't done these puzzles in a while and even though it had small words that help, I had a little trouble getting started. After solving it I thought I may as well include it here. I'll post the way I solved it at the very bottom. Good luck:

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT A FQLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

DRI DEWTNBI AVDR JWHI AWHIP VJ DRQD DRIF CID ALL

IGKVDIO WUIE PWDRVPC QPO DRIP HQEEF RVH.

                             --KRIE--

JE VCT’IN RCJWR HC LN YLGN HC GCCQ LYUQ CW DCFNHXJWR YWO

GYTRX YLCTH JH VCT FJRXH YD PNGG GYTRX YLCTH JH WCP.

                                  --FYIJN CDFCWO--

GKVVEHDRR ER GKOEHQ K SKXQD, STOEHQ, ZKXEHQ,

ZSTRD-PHEJ AKYESU -- EH KHTJGDX ZEJU.

                             --QDTXQD CBXHR--

OBGBHOBHQGAAJ, TWK YVWMFKM LKFQKWB TC BYK

OYTBO JTV MTW’B BGRK MTW’B IT HW.

                 --HGJWK IFKBORJ--

PD UDWW MNGKFNW BPFNY EDFEUD BJC IFGD MNGKFNW

BPFNY KCDBW.

                             --IBGKD MNGKD--

ZU QLBU RY SUYSGU YQ VWKF NIV KS ZUEIKHU VYK XIV

XUUR RJUX YQ VYKF NIV WYNQ.

                                --ALXXV WKFIQRU--

IV BZCV KTDDATMYVY WP L KVL AO XACVDNP.

MVCVDNFVBVKK, NFZK KVL GLM YVGDVLKV ZM KZRV.

                      --UANFVD NVDVKL--

ACCK GXWVXWGCXM EGYY JYEJPM IV OYVJKVK SCH

VDVHP JMMQUOWGCX CS JQWLCHGWP.

                            --XCJL EVIMWVH--

ZFE GUYX U OFAUH AXVSFJVWCWHWNZ, QGXJ ZFE’YX

CXXJ RWYXJ IUA OFAX NGUJ ZFE JXXB , NF BF QWVX

NGWJRV QWNG WT UJB RWYX WJNXHHWRXJNHZ.

                        --P M AFQHWJR--

PTMWB WM XEUPAGF; XEUPAGF WM OHUCHBJWAG;

OHUCHBJWAG WM ATU ZUHEP, EGZ ATU ZUHEP WM HXEDHG.

                      --XHGUF CUHZHUWB EPWHR--

E WMZRG AQ QZSH NATRG TUGHKJPEUG PMZJ. JHUG

JALHAUH PA QHPWM E WMZRG AQ QZSH.

                     --BKATWMA LEKO--

RD  CO  NDCMD,  RD    LCSD,  CGW  XPUD  PGD  CGPOQDT

XVIFR  EDD

I had to resort to hoping that the letter "T" was "E". I was also guessing and hoping that "KBT" was "the". I knew the letter "F" was either "I" or "A". But I started out playing with the sentence structure and assumed that "UM" was 'is" even though the first word would have to end with an "A" (that last letter was hard to make out too). I didn't care much for "KTDMT" being "tense" but I had no other plan and needed to resume my "life".

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

      s  a       a   i s           e  a       a    a     e ss        you     i          e

DNMKFJQUF  UM   JUWT  F  QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

     e s e       e   s e              e    ast     e     e

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

I had suspected the word "ZNR" to be "you" from the start as I studied the puzzle. The letters were not use much. I did expect more out of the "N" or in reality the "o". Then it made more sense for "CRK' to be "but" as it fit sentence structure and the "R" or "u" was not used again. This made more sense for the "KBT" to be "the". I then fill in what I believe are "t"s, "H"s, "o"s. etc.

   ost a        a  i s         e a      a    a     e sso      you    i        the

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

     e s e  t  te   s e   but   the       ast    e     e  t

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

At this point I have to assume that "D" is "n".

N ost a       a  i s     i   e a      a    a      e ss on   you    i n     the

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

    e s ent   te n s e  but   the      ast    e     e  t

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

The word "nostalgia" becomes apparent and gives us some missing letters, and other words jump out.

 Nostalgia       i s   l i ke  a      a    a    le ss on   you    i n     the

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

    e s ent   te n s e  but   the      ast    e     e  t

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

The words "present" and "past" become clearer and sentence structure helps, plus it's a quote! The two words, of course, give us the "r"s and "p"s.

 Nostalgia       i s   l i ke  a     ra    ar   le ss on   you    i n     the

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

pre s ent   te n s e  but   the    past   pe r   e  t

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

And voila!

 Nostalgia        is    like   a  grammar   lesson     you  find    the

DNMKFJQUF UM JUWT F QLFXXFL JTMMND: ZNR SUDY KBT

 present     tense     but   the    past    perfect

ELTMTDK KTDMT, CRK KBT EFMK ETLSTAK!

   Source   Obscure

--MNRLAT NCMARLT--

The author's name or "no-name" too often makes it too easy. It could have been by "Source Unknown", "Anonymous", "Chinese Proverb", Mark Twain, Josh Billingsly, Chesterton, etc.