foregin poilcy
there is cambridge university research that states that it doesn’t matter in what order the letters occur as long as the first and last letters are in the same place we can read any word - this takes that idea a little further
so what does it say? - there are many possible words available -
the top word is probably the most difficult as the letters themselves are incomplete - the first letter could be an ‘a’ or ‘d’, there is enough of a curve on the left to eliminate ‘u’ - the second letter could be an ‘l’ or a ‘t’ - the third letter could be ‘c’, an ‘e’ or an ‘o’ - however it does appear to be the last letter of a word and our knowledge of words kicks in to tell us that following a consonant it’s likely to be a vowel and the most likely candidate is an ‘e’ the first letter similarly is most likely to be a vowel as it precedes a consonant - so we could have ‘ale’ or ‘ate’ -
our sense of spacing also comes into play here - when we look at the bottom row of letters we realise that this is a fragment of a much larger sign and that the ‘ale’ or ‘ate’ is a suffix, the end of a longer word on the top row - so it could be inhale or whale or even just male - or it could be compassionate or discombobulate or ovulate - however our experience of what signs usually say discounts many possibilities -
what about the second row? - first word ends in ‘ht’ with a fragment of a letter preceding it - could it be an ‘i’? - again experience tells us that this is most likely a ‘g’ - ‘ght’ therefore possible words are: weight, thought, light, straight or fight among others -
'of' is the only complete word here - so we have something of something -
the third word has a definite 'w' and what can only be an 'a' - so it could say 'was' or 'war' or 'way'
maybe?
remembering that it is a fragment of a sign helps - this is actually and sadly a far too common sign to see
so what does it say? - there are many possible words available -
the top word is probably the most difficult as the letters themselves are incomplete - the first letter could be an ‘a’ or ‘d’, there is enough of a curve on the left to eliminate ‘u’ - the second letter could be an ‘l’ or a ‘t’ - the third letter could be ‘c’, an ‘e’ or an ‘o’ - however it does appear to be the last letter of a word and our knowledge of words kicks in to tell us that following a consonant it’s likely to be a vowel and the most likely candidate is an ‘e’ the first letter similarly is most likely to be a vowel as it precedes a consonant - so we could have ‘ale’ or ‘ate’ -
our sense of spacing also comes into play here - when we look at the bottom row of letters we realise that this is a fragment of a much larger sign and that the ‘ale’ or ‘ate’ is a suffix, the end of a longer word on the top row - so it could be inhale or whale or even just male - or it could be compassionate or discombobulate or ovulate - however our experience of what signs usually say discounts many possibilities -
what about the second row? - first word ends in ‘ht’ with a fragment of a letter preceding it - could it be an ‘i’? - again experience tells us that this is most likely a ‘g’ - ‘ght’ therefore possible words are: weight, thought, light, straight or fight among others -
'of' is the only complete word here - so we have something of something -
the third word has a definite 'w' and what can only be an 'a' - so it could say 'was' or 'war' or 'way'
maybe?
remembering that it is a fragment of a sign helps - this is actually and sadly a far too common sign to see