Tracks
/
Ruby
Ruby
/
Exercises
/
Pig Latin
Pig Latin

Pig Latin

Medium

Instructions

Implement a program that translates from English to Pig Latin.

Pig Latin is a made-up children's language that's intended to be confusing. It obeys a few simple rules (below), but when it's spoken quickly it's really difficult for non-children (and non-native speakers) to understand.

  • Rule 1: If a word begins with a vowel sound, add an "ay" sound to the end of the word. Please note that "xr" and "yt" at the beginning of a word make vowel sounds (e.g. "xray" -> "xrayay", "yttria" -> "yttriaay").
  • Rule 2: If a word begins with a consonant sound, move it to the end of the word and then add an "ay" sound to the end of the word. Consonant sounds can be made up of multiple consonants, a.k.a. a consonant cluster (e.g. "chair" -> "airchay").
  • Rule 3: If a word starts with a consonant sound followed by "qu", move it to the end of the word, and then add an "ay" sound to the end of the word (e.g. "square" -> "aresquay").
  • Rule 4: If a word contains a "y" after a consonant cluster or as the second letter in a two letter word it makes a vowel sound (e.g. "rhythm" -> "ythmrhay", "my" -> "ymay").

There are a few more rules for edge cases, and there are regional variants too.

Read more about Pig Latin on Wikipedia.

Edit via GitHub The link opens in a new window or tab
Ruby Exercism

Ready to start Pig Latin?

Sign up to Exercism to learn and master Ruby with 20 concepts, 118 exercises, and real human mentoring, all for free.