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What four nouns begin with the letters "i," "x," "z," "u," "q," and "y" in the novel The Cay?

We can find nouns in the story by looking for words for people, places, and things. For example, here are all the nouns in the first sentence of the story:

  • sharks

  • darkness

  • sea

  • submarines 

  • middle

  • night

Although it won't be possible to find four examples for each of the letters you listed, we'll do our best! If all you need is four examples from any of those letters, how about "island," "U-boat," "Queen Emma," and "yard"?


First, let's look for nouns starting with "i." You'll find "island" and "islands," as well as "inside" (which can also sometimes be a preposition) and, if you're hard-pressed to name a fourth, the "Indies" in the name "West Indies." Although the letter "I" appears perhaps a thousand times or more in the narration, it's usually a pronoun: Phillip telling the story, saying "I" to name himself.


For the letter "x," you're very unlikely to find many words. In fact, check out your "x" section in the dictionary and notice how short it is! There are not many "x" words at all in our language. So although you'll find nouns in The Cay that include "x," like "box" and "ax," I don't believe you'll find any that begin with that letter.


The same goes for "z." It's just not a letter that starts that many English words. You can find words like "puzzlement," "haze," "horizon," "Nazis," and "Venezuela" in this story, but I don't think there are any nouns here that start with "z."


In your question, you originally listed the letter "u" twice, so I left out that second instance. We'll find "U-boat" and "U-boats," "use" (in the sentence "There was no use in asking Amsterdam,") and "United States."


Next, let's look for "q" nouns. "Queen Emma," the name of a bridge, appears in Chapter 1, and throughout the rest of the story we'll find "questions" and "Quito Sueno." However, that's it for the nouns starting with "q." Many other "q" words appear in the story, like "quiver," "quickly," "quiet," and "quite," but these are not nouns.


Lastly, "y" nouns include "young" (which is usually an adjective but is used as a noun in the dedication of this book) and "year," "years," and "yard."

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