I highly doubt Msh would put the definition as the literal word

THE is basically at the end of nothing, since it’s at the start

That wouldn't make much sense in terms of how cryptic clues work

Also "end of nothing" =/= "start"

Take abcdef

d is not the end of nothing, since it is at the end of the first four letters

same applies to everything else except a

ok maybe a is at the end of the string a

another thing that’s possibly wrong

It could be RIO

why?

Landed (3) -> trio

3 letters at end -> rio

Are you familiar with how cryptic clues work?

Nothing because it’s technically not part of the clue

Yes (3) means 3 letter word

(3,4) means 3 letter word then four letter word

(3,5!) means 333 55555!

(you know what I mean

)

Still no

There's no wordplay involved, that's just a weird double defintion

I'd high suggest you read through this guide from Deusovi ^ it's quite good

I skimmed that though

I'm not quite convinced you understand how the clues work though. Can you explain then what the answer to some of your other clues you posted were?

@PrinceNorthLæraðr 'Landed' could potentially be 'U' because landed=aristocratic=posh=upper class which is abbreviated to U

Ohhh, like "LANDED" meaning "owning land"

(That's not a Kevin Bacon-esque chain of association, just an emphasis on what 'landed' means in 'landed gentry')

Exactly

Put it all together and you've probably got a ping there

Yeah, thank you. The only thing is "at the end of basically", like Y is at the end of basically?

I guess that makes sense

Again, yep

_Y

@msh210 _YO+U, reader def, with landed being "gentry", "upper class"--> U

'at' is probably just a positioning word for the letters

Thanks for the assistance stiv xD

If it's right, great!

@Stiv Ah okay, I see it. I guess for me it's just partly how I deconstruct clues in my head, so my brain was saying why not just "end of basically" rather than "at the end of basically"

But that makes sense

I read it as "at ... COMMA this" meaning 'this' would follow '...'. Not my easiest notation to read, but hopefully you get what I mean!

Oh I see what you're saying

It's a bit confusing but like AT Y (positioned at Y), here's the rest of the letters

@Stiv I think it's just a connector, if that's correct?

I don't think AT would be a connector

though

Hm

If it is, then... The reader (YOU) = (at) Y (the end of basically) + O (nothing) + U (landed)

I agree it's a weird connector though.

Not just weird, I don't think at can function (well) as a splitter/connector. AT doesn't really show a relationship between the [DEF] and the [WORDPLAY]

I'm sure we're over-reading this way too much and mostly exists for surface xD

"The reader the end of basically nothing" doesn't make any sense after all

This is where msh210 pops up and says "Not my intention, I'm afraid"

Though I don't know what he'd be afraid of - sharks? Bears? Shark-bears??

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/66150962#66150962 is BAN A NAN

> Eastern monkey eats yellow with knife while reading article about vowels (3,1,3)

Elaborate

because banana in Russian is pronounced banan, adding vowel article (an) makes bananan, and the knife splits it up into BAN A NAN

And Russia is in Eastern Europe

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer Which part of that is the definition?

Okay so a couple things

Then let’s do

ack

Eastern monkey eats yellow with knife while reading article about vowels, ban grandma in process (3,1,3)

I meant to edit it

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer That still wouldn't work. BAN is not the same tense as BANS

Also, there's still not a coherent definition

The first side is wordplay, the second side is the actual definition

@PrinceNorthLæraðr edited

Well we're addressing just the definition, the wordplay still doesn't work

Not to mention "ban grandma in process" as BAN A NAN is highly dubious at best

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/66151295#66151295 is NOZZLE

> Not a puzzle, and without odd-tailed Spanish snacks (6)

I guess it could become

Not a puzzle, and without odd-tailed Spanish snacks. Good at controlling liquid jets (6)

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer Eastern cannot be used to mean Russian, for a lot of different reasons (least of which Russia encompassing both Asia and Europe). If you wanted to specify that something is in that language you'd need to specify something like "X in Russian or Russian X". Not a fan of say "French the" or The French" as LE but it works

I really must suggest that you read a guide to cryptic clues and get to the point that you can solve cryptic crosswords without needing to reveal letters. I recommend newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/cryptic-crossword, as they're fairly manageable and follow the rules pretty strictly.

they also have some very good beginner ones that explain what type of clue they are

(and the New Yorker cryptics are what I learned on, with a bit of help from various guides and a friend of mine who knew how to do cryptics already)

"Monkey eats yellow" as BANANA also doesn't really work. You could do something like "what a monkey eats" or "a berry" or something, so a russian berry "bananan" is barely passable, though leans into unfair cluing. Some might disagree on that though

Said upon remorse, pain combined with a type of wheat (5)

Instead of trying to make clues, the best way to learn is to solve a lot of them first

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I'm prepared to buy "Eastern" as "Russian" (e.g., Russia is often described as an opponent of the West) as a stretch, but I'm not a fan. "Eastern assent" could be "da", for example, though it'd be much better to clue it with something Russia-specific, like "Siberian assent".

I'm prepared to buy it, but I wouldn't like it :P

I share that opinion :-p

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Better or worse than "at" as a connector? :-p

i don't think i'd be willing to buy "eastern" as russian" since there are so many countries in the 'east', not to mention multiple that have been described as 'opponents of the West'

Also, kind of Eurocentric

the same way i wouldn't buy 'from the Northern Hemisphere' to mean Romanian

Like if I'm in Japan, Eastern means US

having tried some British cryptics, "Eurocentric" is not exactly out of the ordinary :-p (and as an American, many of the references/slang are utterly lost on me)

(but I'll agree that regional centricity is best avoided; as I said, I wouldn't be a fan)

@RyanM heh yeah. Especially because by strict geographical standards, East-Asian countries are much closer if you travel westward then Eastward from 'Murica

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I've always heard "east" vs. "west" be Eastern vs. Western hemispheres. So Americans would include Europe (at least Western Europe) in "the west", despite it being to the east.

I guess so. I more so associate "Eastern" with Orientalism, which I have my own issues with :P

Anyway, the consensus position appears to be that regardless of whether you can clue "Russian" as "Eastern", you shouldn't

:P

@RyanM also gonna toss a ping to @msh210 in case they come back to all this chatter and can't find the guesses, but feel free to give it to one of the people above that I stole all the pieces from :-p

@Sphinx can spoiler Markdown contain newlines in any form?

any form that actually renders on multiple lines, that is

looks like yes

aaaaand I was just beaten to the fix!

(good edit, thanks to the editor if they happen to see this)