What am I?
My last three letters serve to clarify.
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
The solution is a single English word and, once found, will leave no doubt that it is the intended one.
Hint
The solution explains how the riddle must be modified to yield the solution.
Given the hint, I guess the answer is
SHIFTED.
The gimmick is that:
The predicate of each sentence needs to be shifted cyclically upward once, yielding the actual riddle:
My last three letters are where famous people speak.
My first four letters, I am almost a curse.
Dropping all consonants serve to clarify.
The answer fits this riddle because:
The last three letter: TED= A TED Talk.
My first four letters: SHIF ~ ___T.
Dropping all consonants: IE=i.e., id est, used to clarify.
Is it:
Daisies
Because:
I.e.'s are an example of something, used for clarification.
Dais is a platform on which people speak.
And I know this is a stretch but a lowercase a can look like a d without the top vertical line so the vowels are close to reading diie.
Alternative pointed out by Hugh is aïe is French for "dang."
Worth a shot.
My guess is
Show
My last three letters serve to clarify.
last three letters are 'how' which is asked when we need clarification
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
famous people speak at different shows.
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
When dropped all consonents then has some pronouncing similarity with 'whore'. Or as APrough commented "You also go "Oh, #$%^@" (insert your own favorite curse word). So, technically it is almost a curse."
My guess is:
Discourage
My last three letters serve to clarify.
With age usually comes clarification on most things due to gained experiences and knowledge.
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
Famous people speak in movies which are often held on a disc (DVD, Blue-ray, etc.).
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
Removing all consonants gives: i, o, u, a and e or another way to look at it: I O U A&E. This can be seen as 'I owe you A&E' (the British, Irish, New Zealand, and Hong Kong term for a hospital's emergency department) which is almost an offensive word or phrase used to express anger or annoyance (a definition of curse). Personally, I would interpret this phrase as someone telling me they want to beat me up/send me to A&E.
You are..
Linear
My logic:
- Famous people speak in lines(in movies)
- Ear, in which you speak to clarify
- The curse part is still bugging me, perhaps that is the curse of it all?
Not sure if any of these are the intended answer, but thought I'd throw a few more ideas out there for others to build on...
FACEMASK (You ASK to clarify something. Famous people speak from their FACE. The vowels, AEA are valid hexadecimal values, and a hex is a type of curse)
PAGEANTRY (You TRY something if you want to clarify if it works. Famous people speak via the PAGE. AEA as above) - also tapestry via similar logic for those who grew up in the VHS days, or telemetry if you abbreviate television as "tele"...
DISCOTHEQUE (QUE can be used in spanish as a clarifying "What?". Movies containing famous people come on DVD DISCs. IOEUE is almost IOU (I owe you), which could be seen as a curse...)
My answer is:
Boombox
My last three letters serve to clarify.
e.g, drawing a box around an answer or perhaps ticking a box to clarify a position.
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
A boom is a large mike on the end of a stick usually used for actors or people being interviewed.
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
'ooo' is almost 'poo' (if you add an extra line)
My attempt at this! The word is
Bookshelf
My last three letters serve to clarify.
ELF's clarifying magic can be seen here
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
BOOK is where famous people speak out their auto-biographies.
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
OOE or Out Of Endurance is almost a curse if you're playing Dark age of Camelot, because if you don't have an endurance potion, you will die. SEE HERE
Could the word be
Confix?
My last three letters serve to clarify.
fix - to repair or correct, stabilize, direct.
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
conf - short for conference.
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
Oi! What's the big idea giving us a stumper like this!?
What am I?
Cipher
My last three letters serve to clarify.
her, is a pronoun - used to clarify referents, without using names.
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
CIPH (Collège international de philosophie). Yeah, famous people spoke there. Lectured, taught, and thought as well, probably. Yay for acronyms!
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
ie, ie... Fie! fie, a curse upon thee! if only the vowels are 'almost' a curse means they need a little more. The addition of 'F' makes a fine, traditional curse.
Hint
The hint from the comments, "Gur fbyhgvba rkcynvaf ubj gur evqqyr zhfg or zbqvsvrq gb lvryq gur fbyhgvba" translates to "the solution explains how the riddle must be modified to yield the solution".
What must we do to the riddle to find the answer? outthink it, puzzle through it, or cipher it - a word which means to encode, but also to solve problems! As a bonus, it is also how the hint is found.
My random guess:
Wingspan
Because,
A wing of a building is a place to make a speech.
A pan can serve to clarify butter by melting it.
Ai! as an exclamation isn't usually considered a curse but it's close.
I also considered
Walleye
But I couldn't figure out how that would be a curse.
If this isn't it
It might have to do with letters
oic: Oh, I see?
icy:I see why?
our:Oh, you are?
ucy: You see why?
I can't really figure out the other letters that might be with TV though.
Almost a curse:
It occurred to me that some people use "a-hole" as a curse. So "U A O" might be considered close to "You a-hole" depending on how you pronounce it. Possibly even "U A" might be considered almost a curse but that would not make me happy if it were the solution.
Another possibility for cursing could be "O I U" as in "Oi, you!" This is a British expression meaning basically "hey, you" but it is rather aggressive and might be considered almost a curse. "Oi" or "Oy" is also a Yiddish exclamation as in "Oy vey" or "oy gevalt" but it's really more dismay than cursing.
Clarifying:
google "ion clarify". Lots of hits, so potentially anything ending in ion could qualify. Doesn't work at all with my "almost a curse" idea of course.
Where famous people speak
might refer to politics. The Hill is a name for Washington DC. I couldn't go any further with this but are there other four letter names for places where politicians speak?
A quad is a place, but not particularly one where famous people speak.
The United Nations General Assembly UNGA is a place where famous people speak but "ungainly" doesn't fit with any other clues.
You are a
hall
My last three letters serve to clarify.
"It's allright"
My first four letters are where famous people speak.
hall
Dropping all consonants, I am almost a curse.
hell
I think the answer is:
Teles??
Because:
'Les' in French would mean "the" a word which specifies; 'Tele' would mean television where famous people appear; 'Ee' is an exclamatory word in northern England. And coincidentally also a word to display disbelief and surprise word in commonly used Japanese language
