Something Sounds Off

Question

What makes a phishy phrase?

There exists a land of anthropomorphized phrases, in this land a vessel carries many phrases and is attacked by pirates. The pirates force everyone to walk across a narrow plank. Those that fall off are eaten by fish. What makes these phrases?

Phishy Phrases:

Straight ahead

Biggest strength

Evil shark

Enemy dolphin

Greenish banana

Periodic pendulums

Melodic aardvarks

Lasting legacy

Koala crimes

Normal phrases:

Drunk giraffe

Crazy criminal

Wild wombat

Worldly wildebeest

Vile pomegranate

Worst weakness

Icy icicles

Hints:

Hint 1: The story sort of gives a hint towards the central idea of a phishy phrase.

@Jasen I don't think so, because for example "enemy dolphin" (5,7) is phishy but "drunk giraffe" (also 5,7) is normal. It could still have to do with word length if it has to do with the words themselves, like their letters or syllables. — DooplissForce, Jun 30 '16 at 07:04
Well, every phrase is either 3 or 5 syllables, except for Periodic Pendulums (7) and Koala Crimes (4). — Epicedion, Jun 30 '16 at 14:49

hexomino · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-30T15:55:29.853

14

I think the answer is

For each of the phishy phrases the longer of the two words has fewer syllables than the shorter word. For the normal phrases, it's the other way round.

Title

"Something Sounds Off" makes reference to the fact that phishy phrases sound different to how they appear, in that you might expect the word that looks longer to also have more syllables.

edited Jun 30 '16 at 15:55

answered Jun 30 '16 at 15:46

hexomino

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Well done. Bonus happiness from me if you figure out why the story might be related... Its a tad convoluted but it makes sense to me. – Going hamateur Jun 30 '16 at 16:32
perhaps some sort of speed or cadence mismatch while they're walking., – Jasen Jun 30 '16 at 21:27

Something Sounds Off

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