Verbs

Introduction

This article explains the Verbs in a logic puzzle, and how they are used for Facts and Marks. Here are the verbs for the logic puzzle "Five Houses". There are always three verbs in a logic puzzle; the negative verb, the positive verb, and the possible verb. Each verb has a name, and a character code. Our example logic puzzle has the following information for the verbs:

• The Negative verb has the name "is not", and its code is the 'X' character.
• The Positive verb has the name "is", and its code is the 'O' character.
• The Possible verb has the name "may be", and its code is the blank character.

The verbs can be singular ("is") or plural ("are"). The tense can be present ("is"), past ("was"), or future ("will be"). My recommendation is to use the verbs found in the clues of the puzzle. Verbs are automatically created by the program and are assigned to the variables: IsNot, Is, and Maybe.

For the picky grammartarians and strict code-namers out there, I know maybe is an adverb and the word may in may be is an auxiliary verb. So should I use the phrase "may be" and the variable name MayBe, or the phrase "maybe" and the name Maybe? I obviously have a hybrid solution. I want the name to be Maybe, but I mean to say "A boy may be first in line.", not "Maybe a boy is first in line."

Facts

Here are the facts for our example logic puzzle.

Marks

The characters you in see in the Grids form represent one of the three verbs. Before you begin solving a logic puzzle, each grid cell is set to the possible verb (a blank character). To solve a logic puzzle, each cell must be set to either the negative verb ('X'), or the positive verb ('O'). If all cells are properly filled in then you have the solution. Here are the grids for the solution to our example logic puzzle.