How many “words” can you generate from the letters of the word “Advent”, using each letter no more than once?
For this purpose we will define a “word” as having at least 3 letters, with a pattern:
a) 0 – 2 consonants
b) 1-2 vowels
c) 1 – 2 consonants
...with steps b and c repeating as desired until the “word” is complete.
Hint: this isn’t a linguistic problem, it’s a combinatorial one. The rules exclude some valid English words, and allow lots of “words” that don’t actually exist.
Comment: A similar, but more complex, challenge is coming later...