Hmmm. Does scoop -s = coop, the place where you buy poop-grown veggies, rather than the place where the chickens make the poop, count, or does it require a - to actually make it co-op, thus disqualifying it?

A clever guess, but as you surmise, coop is one syllable unless you add a hyphen (in my dictionary, anyway), so scoop does not qualify, I'm afraid.

If hyphens disqualify you, how about diacritics? I'm thinking "spate" and "pate" (as in "pate de foie gras," not "Captain Steubing's shiny pate").

Liane Hansen, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Defenestration of Prague

Now, just because we're playing a word game, does that mean we have to mention Liane "Ooh, that was a toughie!" Hansen?

Aha--Prague proves useful. It suggests "vague" and "ague." Defenestration suggests nothing, however, except a good idea of what to do with Liane.

My thinking on this is complicated by having grown up in the south, where a lot of dipthongs and even single-vowel words grow in syllabacity. (e.g. "Bill" = "Be-al")

Now hold on just a goll-dang cotton pickin' minute:

"if you lop a single letter off the front, the results will be a new word--one with twice as many syllables as the original word. (For example, if 'ombat' was a real word, and if it had four syllables [which would be weird as hell, but we're just exampling here], then 'wombat' would qualify"

Are we shootin' for twice as many syllables, or half as many? Are we goin' from four to eight, or four to two? How much time if left on the clock? What's in his glove? Who bet on the swan to live?

Oh. Start with "wombat" at two syllables and go to "ombat" with four. Sorry, I got lost in your crazy moon language.

Okay, Jonathan has figured out matters for himself.
All addition of diacritical marks and accents is verboten.
Terry has won the golden laurel (with a Czechoslovakian assist from Jonathan) with the adjective "vague," which he correctly notes doubles its syllables when it becomes "ague."
But there are still five other words available, and those Wombatters who name them will be covered in glory.

I can't but think that the French are somehow involved. . .

A serendipitous trip to the dictionary brings me trial/rial, though rial really isn't a common word, is it?

(ague was in last Sunday's Times crossword puzzle, just to keep the whole Hansen/Shortz thang going.)

Yeah, I'm unemployed . . . what's it to ya?

Well, "baa" and "aa" (say "ah-ah" and think some kind of lava in Hawaii) are both in Web. III, but perhaps they shouldn't be, and they certainly aren't any more common than Scott's "rial."

"Trial" has two syllables, as does "rial," so it doesn't qualify. "Aa" is much more obscure than we were looking for, although it gains a point for miscellaneous cleverness.

The most obscure of the five remaining words was, by far, "twinged," which produces the two-syllable "winged." The remaining four are substantially more common than that--and remain to be guessed.

Damn, I swear I thought of this before Gavin's hint:

raged, aged

and, I suppose, paged and aged. I'm out. Go team!

My Random House College Dictionary gives the option of a one-syllable trial. And 'twinged' has at least one and a half.

I thought 'ism' was promising, but 'jism' isn't in my RHCD, and I've always heard it pronounced bisyllabically, anyway.

Hackley --

Now you're composting with worms!

Aw, hell, it's Friday. Nearly forgot.

id (pronouned "Aye-Dee") and lid (pronounced "lid")?

I bet Games magazine would take that.

So the French aren't responsible after all: -ed is the key, is it? How about "raged" and "aged" (adj.)?

Rats--she who hesitates to post is lost.

Cringed, ringed.

By the way, I've discovered there are about 62,000 words where if you add one letter the beginning, it adds a syllable.

Who can name all of those?

reify
roseate
aerate
ionize
syzygy
aphelion
crumble
oiseau
lignite
Let me know if I'm getting close here.

climbed, imbed.

Here's a bonus-time word question -- what common word retains its spelling in the plural, but is pronounced differently. Actually, I think there are two very similar words with this property, though I can't right at the moment recall the second.

Climbed/imbed is snazzy. If "climbed" doesn't count because it needs two letters lopped off, limbed/imbed ought to do it.

That's what I meant! Dang it!

p/ale would double, if you order two of them

I'd judge from Jonathan's post that we're reaching the happy-hourish end of our competetive stamina.

Okay, it's the end of the day and many of these are clever and some are borderline, and I don't see any need to sort out between the two. (Group hug for everybody!) And I will confess that there's several more than I knew about, but the purity of vague/ague still stands.

Some other examples:
dragged/ragged
drugged/rugged
snaked/naked

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Thanks four/our puzzle.

Is Mountain Dew a smart drink?

Jeez, I dunno. I saw a guy on TV head-but a long horn sheep to get some Mountain Dew. That didn't seem too smart.

I can't remember if I was watching an ad or a Fox reality show. I guess if it was Fox the guy would have been trying to marry the sheep.